“Because this is another thing your average American man in crisis does: he tries to go home, forgetting, momentarily, that he is the reason he left home in the first place, that the home is not his anymore, and that the crisis is him.” PhilosophyHumor Book:An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England Source: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
“After a dream like that, you're grateful that it was just a dream, that no matter how bad your actual life, it couldn't be worse than your dream life.” PhilosophyHumor Book:An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England Source: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
“I have no idea,' he said, and that's another thing I'll put in my arsonist's guide: be wary of a man who says, 'I have no idea,' when asked why his wife doesn't like something he's done, which of course is just another way of saying be wary of men in general.” MenMarriageNo IdeaWivesWarySam PulsiferArsonist S Guide Book:An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England Source: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
“How did he get so terribly smart, so determined? Maybe it was the pain I'd caused that made him that way, and if that were true, then I'd sort of had a hand in it, in making him as smart and devious as he was. I was really starting to dislike the guy. But I also felt a little proud, like Dr. Frankenstein must have felt when his monster turned on him, because after all, it was Dr. Frankenstein who had made the monster strong and cunning enough to turn on him.” BetrayalCunningDeviousFrankensteinFrankenstein S MonsterSam PulsiferThomas Coleman Book:An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England Source: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
“I bet it was also the triumphant Aha! and not the truth itself that had fueled all those famous literary detectives I knew not much about except their names - Philip Marlowe, Sherlock Holmes, Joe and Frank Hardy. I felt like yelling something celebratory on my way home, something like, Yeah! or Fuck, yeah! just like Marlowe would have yelled, just like the Hardys would have yelled, and maybe Holmes, too, although maybe that's why he kept Watson around; to tell Holmes to simmer down and not get too far ahead of himself.” YeahTriumphantSherlock HolmesAha MomentJohn WatsonPhilip MarloweAhaFrank HardyFuck YeahJoe HardyLiterary DetectivesSimmer DownThe Hardy Boys Book:An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England Source: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
“That's not important,' he said, and when Detective Wilson said that, I was sure he didn't know the answer, 'not important' being just one of the things we call that which we don't know.” Don T KnowSam PulsiferNot ImportantDetective Wilson Book:An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England Source: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
“Good-bye,' I said to them, but they didn't seem to hear me, and why would they have wanted to? Why would they have wanted to do with the world outside of each other? Outside each other, they were mean little human beings like the rest of us, the kind of people you both loathed and pitied. Separately, they were characters, and not in a good way. But together they were something to wonder at and maybe even envy. I had this unoriginal thought as I walked out the door and toward my van: love changes us, makes us into people whom others then want to love. That's why, to those of us without it, love is the voice asking, What else? What else? And to those of us who have had love and lost it or thrown it away, then love is the voice that leads us back to love, to see if it might still be ours or if we've lost it, love is also the thing that makes us speak in aphorisms about love, which is why we try to get love back, so we can stop speaking that way. Aphoristically, that is.” LoveAphorismsAphoristicallyUnoriginalSam PulsiferLove Changes UsLees ArdorWesley Mincher Book:An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England Source: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
“Oh no," I said, because if our life is just one endless song about hope and regret, then "oh no" is apparently that song's chorus, the words we always return to.” LifeHopeRegretMistakes Book:An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England Source: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
“Sometimes the lies you tell are less frightening than the loneliness you might feel if you stopped telling them.” IfsFeelsSometimesMightLyingLonelinessFrightening Author:Brock Clarke
“When I was a boy, I would read those postcards and know exactly why my father was doing what he was doing: he was taking a stab at greatness, that is, if greatness is simply another word for doing something different from what you were already doing--or maybe greatness is the thing we want to have so that other people will want to have us, or maybe greatness is merely the grail for our unhappy, striving selves, the thing we think we need but don't and can't get anyway.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWantNeedsDifferentSelfFatherBoysGreatnessStriveUnhappyPostcards Author:Brock Clarke
“Some people, when desperate, retreat to pills or hard liquor. I nap.” PeopleHardDesperateRetreatPillsLiquorNaps Book:Exley Source: Exley
“There is something underwhelming about scholarly hate mail - the sad literary allusions, the refusal to use contractions.” UseHateMailRefusalAllusionScholarlyContractionsHate Mail Book:An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England: A Novel Source: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England: A Novel