Jess Walter Quotes

“A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.”
“That’s only three.”
Alvis finished his wine. “You have to do disappointment twice.”

“He wished he could reassure his mother: a man wants many things in life, but when one of them is also the right thing, he would be a fool not to choose it.”

“All we have is the story we tell. Everything we do, every decision we make, our strength, weakness, motivation, history, and character-what we believe-none of it is; it's all part of the story we tell. But here's the thing:”

“No one gets to tell you what your life means!”

“But I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start.”

“This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through your life.”

“Then she smiled, and in that instant, if such a thing were possible, Pasquale fell in love, and he would remain in love for the rest of his life--not so much with the woman, whom he didn't even know, but with the moment.”

“Life, he thought, is a blatant act of imagination.”

“And even if they don't find what they're looking for, isn't it enough to be out walking together in the sunlight?”

“What kind of wife would I be if I left your father simply because he was dead?”

“He thought it might be the most intimate thing possible, to fall asleep next to someone in the afternoon.”

“Stories are people. I'm a story, you're a story… your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we're lucky, our stories join into one, and for awhile, we're less alone.”

“… the smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be.”

“Some memories remain close; you can shut your eyes and find yourself back in them. But there are second-person memories, too, distant you memories, and these are trickier: you watch yourself in disbelief.”

“What business does memory have with time?”

“All we have is the story we tell.”

“Stories are nations, empires.”