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Karl Kristian Flores Quotes

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Famous Karl Kristian Flores Quotes

“I wish I hadn't met you in the rain: it comes every winter. I wish you hadn't told me your favorite wine: I've become a drinker. I wish I never showed you my hidden birthmark: It looks back at me at night asking where you are. I wish I hadn't read you my journal, all the pages praising you, It's corrupted now that I can't tell if I write for me or you. I wish I hadn't told you my daily routine: it's not mine anymore. I can't enjoy 11:11, my favorite song, a birthday cake, or a concert tour. I'm not afraid of the future, it's the past that takes a while.”

RelationshipsMemoriesLetting GoHeartbreakNostalgiaRecoveryMoving OnVulnerabilityMissing SomeoneBreak Ups
Book:Can I Tell You Something?
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“The actor blinked, hurt. He felt that chilly world of duplicity— having been given her benevolence and now her indifference. Few things burned men as much as the cold side of a woman that was once warm. They’d had her once, right in their hands, but now that woman had insensibly disappeared. Will I ever know her again? What have I done? God, how she flipped her warmth altogether like a switch! I hate not knowing her anymore, he thought. The actor tried to meet her eyes, but accepted from her composure she would not be kindled.”

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Book:A Happy Ghost
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“You claim to want love, but how can that be if you have not yet met the person you love? Rather, you desire its advantages: touch, security, and company. Love is born from another person—their touch, their company, their ideas. Love is a hand that knocks on our doors and owns no door of its own for you to knock on. When dealing with people, we are each too unique and changing to be labeled and be fitted to another person’s prerequisite needs. And so, it is our lovers who introduce us to our desire. Until then, it is not love that we want. If we claim, alone in our homes, to so badly want love, or marriage, we likely want that other thing.”

LoveRelationshipsMarriageHeartbreakTrue LoveAttractionSelfishnessParadoxThe Goodbye SongNaiveté
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“He really liked her—especially the way her femininity stimulated him. Alejandra was the type of girl that never let a boy entirely have her. If his lips tried to go for a random peck, she would turn the opposite way and smile a “no.” They would be seated at a restaurant and her peppy, shy voice would say, “Thank you for taking me here, but don’t expect anything.” He felt like he had her slippery heart in his hands, but never held it—instead her heart levitated, floating a few centimeters above his twitching fingertips, shining like a fickle disco ball, magnetized in the air by Alejandra’s masterfully crafted tension. She perfected this practice and learned it from her older sister. Except Alejandra felt that she was not as intelligent or gorgeous as other women, and that this prowess was all she had.”

LoveWomenRelationshipsDatingPossessionAttractionTensionFemininityDissatisfactionFlirtation
Book:A Happy Ghost
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“Throughout the years, the ugly boy had lost belief in the practicality of love. He argued there would always be a better version of a man somewhere in the world and thus, no sound reason for a woman to commit to one. Plus, he believed, there was nothing to a woman—they did not love. They chose men for certain seasons and focused to enjoy life above all, in all its grandeur, intentionally saving sincerity for the end—once they were finished. How can men with eyes not sink into depression? And if a woman ever welcomed a man as a companion, she always smelled his feelings, which were gratifying and advantageous to her, and rosily sipped a man’s glad spring of generosity until she was satiated. Andrei saw a woman’s timeline and in response, froze his heart dry and hammered it to pieces. Steel or emptiness—these were the only two available armors available and adequate to withstand the ephemeral nature of women, who he regarded not as individual people, but as a collective entity of superficial vampires. So he promised himself he’d never woo the dead.”

LoveRomanceWomenRelationshipsLonelinessDepressionToxicMasculinityFemininityBeing Single
Book:A Happy Ghost
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“People had tried to reel Raphael in from his silence. Their attempts were precisely why he felt so uncomfortable. He did not want to be saved or included. He liked to listen. When he asked a question, it was because he wanted to know the answer. But then they turned it around to ask, “What about you?” and this bothered Raphael, who believed the speaker only returned the question out of manners and so was never a real inquiry. Raphael would be pressured to respond and endure the painful seconds of saying something someone did not want to hear. He would trace their faltering eyes, then his words would crumble into sand, and his listener would never notice because they were not interested in the first place.”

RelationshipsFriendshipSilenceSadnessSocietyLonelinessSolitudeConversationDatingShyness
Book:A Happy Ghost
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“The best lover you could ever have will sit on this very bench 270 years from now. You two will never meet. And will never know you’ll never meet. They are, however, currently sitting with you because if you two did meet, you’d spend your time sitting as you are now. Because returning to that bench every afternoon, happily single, was like spending a day with every soul who wants to sit there too.”

PainRelationshipsFriendshipSadnessLonelinessSolitudeGetting OlderBeing AloneThe Goodbye Song
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“We have to be careful how we treat others. The human brain is a sensitive flesh that can be punctured by a single event. Based on your sentence, you can leave someone an insult they’ll never forget. You can sometimes hear this frailty when shy voices ask things like: “Can I have another bite?”, “Please call me back” or “What days do you work?”

PainRelationshipsMemoriesSadnessLonelinessConversationTraumaSensitivityThe Goodbye SongInsults
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“We cannot know everything. We cannot do everything. We are what we chose to have known. We are what we ended up doing. This condition is why you could look around and tell people apart. Time is ticking and we are all fugitives fleeing from random death. And we all flee differently. Thus, with the responsibility of choice, humanity is magical this way.”

PeopleDeathRelationshipsSocietyIdentityPersonalityMortalityFriendshipsThe Goodbye SongCreating Yourself
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“He'd told Alejandra this many times, but his comments had been so small in the grand scheme of things. She now knew that the largest parts of people escaped in tiny ways, tiny words, and tiny looks. One was not permitted to let themselves go and because they gripped so tightly trying to keep together the puppet they presented, parts of identity snuck their way out of holes, and released, transforming into something like a harmless quip their lover would forget. But their lover would remember it. Afterward. The schedule of human understanding was almost always set: afterward.”

LovePhilosophyRelationshipsPsychologySocietyLonelinessIdentityDepressionEmpathyDating
Book:A Happy Ghost
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“I can’t do relationships because I’m afraid it will get boring. My friendships are boring. And married couples only talk about how to upgrade the house. I don’t want you and I to be bored ever and so I don’t want to ruin that. People aren’t meant to be so close to each other," said Andrew. "Andrew," said Nora. "There are some people you meet who are worth being boring with.”

FearRelationshipsDatingBoredomGrowing OldFear Of FailureDating AdviceThe Goodbye SongBeing BoredGetting Bored Of Someone
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“I hate running into people. They take the random places. That door over there. Fuck that door. It was an hour before class on the first day and Justin came out right as I was walking in. Bumped in and scared the ba- Jesus out of me and every time I walked into that door, I remembered him. For four years that space belonged to that moment. It’s like everywhere we walk, all we see internally is a landmark of people and moments you’ll never have again.”

RelationshipsMemoryNostalgiaMoving OnFriendshipsThe PastThe Goodbye SongRemembering Loved OnesMissing People
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“It was agreed that to stay with one person your whole life was to not only prevent life experience, but have a miserable elder life by having to stay with another ugly old-looking person. If you stayed single forever, however, one wouldn’t have to lie and say to their wrinkly, crooked-backed lover, “Good morning, beautiful.” Thus, everyone pretty much died alone. At least they died honestly. But these people did not live honestly. At some point, every person once wished to tell that morning lie—to be soothed and supported by an unconditional, unwavering agreement during the cold ends of one’s life. A lie of attraction in exchange for company, they theorized. But they missed the point. Marriage in one’s elder life isn’t to lie and say, “Good morning, beautiful,” but to joke and say, “Good morning, ugly.”

RomanceRelationshipsMarriageTrue LoveOld AgeGetting OldGrowing OldThe Goodbye SongFear Of RelationshipsTrue Marriage
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“I think we all have to meet more people. Help others, be hurt by others, learn from them, fight with them, listen to them, and see things. Over time, one starts to develop a universal voice that is all-fitting— soothing to grandmas, yet exciting to kids. Loud enough to cheer in a stadium and soft enough to whisper in church. A voice that makes sense both to a hungry man on the street and a university professor. An experienced body breeds an encompassing voice.”

LifePhilosophyCharacterInspirationGrowthRelationshipsRiskAdventurePersonalityThe Goodbye Song
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“There is more in front: a timid, desperate cub Locked in a fickle case, wounded and incoherent. We are all that youngling, together in this cosmic hub, And we are not alone in the universe, we are it. But beware the pavement makes us only see the peachy— We care about the diapered: the children and the old, And anyone in between is just an asshole species. The challenge is to see the little child through their cold For we don’t grow at the same pace as our body.”

ChildrenRelationshipsJusticeViolenceIdentityForgivenessHatredCrueltyJudgementFirst Impressions
Book:Can I Tell You Something?
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“Pretty faces have distracted incoming hands ready to stab. Sex has disguised arguments. Politeness has prevented confrontation. Laughing has slowed down revelation. Emotions have been misinterpreted as agreements. Judgment has hampered our listening. Perhaps, for now, we are more accurately defined by what we say or think and not how we seem or look.”

HumanityRelationshipsSocietyIdentityFutureReflectionTricksSecretsThe Goodbye SongPersonhood
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“Darling, don’t say it’s me that you love, But that you love how I make you feel on the weekends. Don’t say you have to go, admit there’s nothing more to let me know. Don’t say it was a good movie, tell me that it was a good break. Don’t say you like her hair, tell me that it’s just different. Don’t say your father’s evil, tell me that it’s ignorance. Don’t say you feel like dying, tell me life would be better without bills. Don’t say you hate crying, but that you hate when they see you ill. Don’t say you love the winter, tell me you like the gifts. Don’t say you want a vacation when you really want a kiss.”

RelationshipsExpressionCommunicationTelling The TruthThe Goodbye SongArticulationPoems On LoveFalling Out Of LoveFinding The Right Words
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“Dried leaves that stomp on other dried leaves-- This is man. Snails pretending to have tortoise shells-- This is man. We're so good, aren't we, at saying we're not cold-- Assuring others even as we shiver and turn blue. But I know you're lying, you might as well fold, Because I'm pretending to be pink while shivering, too.”

TruthLyingPoetryFearRelationshipsPrideVulnerabilityFragilityFacadesExposing Fears
Book:Can I Tell You Something?
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