Mark Z. Danielewski Quotes

“Come morning I found the day as I have found every other day--without relief or explanation.”

“Little solace comes
to those who grieve
when thoughts keep drifting
as walls keep shifting
and this great blue world of ours
seems a house of leaves

moments before the wind.”

“Here then at long last is my darkness. No cry of light, no glimmer, not even the faintest shard of hope to break free across the hold.”

“Very
soon he
will vanish
completely in the wings
of his own
wordless
stanza.
[ ]

but
his
stanza
is not
completely
empty
[ * ]”

“I still get nightmares. In fact, I get them so often I should be used to them by now. I'm not. No one ever really gets used to nightmares.”

“Prometheus, thief of light, giver of light, bound by the gods, must have been a book.”

“Some people reflect light, some deflect it, you by some miracle, seem to collect it.”

“Maturity, one discovers, has everything to do with the acceptance of ‘not knowing.”

“We all create stories to protect ourselves.”

“This is not for you.”

“Scars are the paler pain of survival received unwillingly and displayed in the language of injury.”

“Sublime is something you choke on after a shot of tequila.”

“Her smile, I'm sure, burnt Rome to the ground.”

“Why did god create a dual universe?
So he might say
‘Be not like me. I am alone.'
And it might be heard.”

“What miracle is this? This giant tree.
It stands ten thousand feet high
But doesn't reach the ground. Still it stands.
Its roots must hold the sky.”

“Love of love written by the broken hearted, love of life written by the dead.”

“… and there you have it, another body on the floor surrounded by things that don't mean much to anyone except to the one who can't take any of them along.”

“Youth always tries to fill the void, an old man learns to live with it.”

“And where there is no Echo there is no description of space or love. There is only silence.”

“No one ever really gets used to nightmares.”

“I want something else. I'm not even sure what to call it anymore except I know it feels roomy and it's drenched in sunlight and it's weightless and I know it's not cheap. Probably not even real”

“The ruminations are mine,

let

the world

be yours.”

“The greatest of love letters are always coded for the one and not the many.”

“I think that's what finally stopped me. I slid right to the edge. My legs were hanging over. And I could feel it too. I don't know how. There was no wind, no sound, no change of temperature. There was just this terrible emptiness reaching up for me.”

“I must read.
I must read.
I must read.”

“I will walk heavy, and I will walk strange.”

“Explanation is not half as strong as experience but experience is not half as strong as experience and understanding”

“It is hungry, it it immortal. Worse, it knows nothing of whim.”

“Do not wake me from this slumber, but be assured that just as I have wept much, I have also wandered many roads with my thoughts.”

“Make no mistake, those who write long books have nothing to say.
Of course those who write short books have even less to say.”

“Knowledge is hot water on wool. It shrinks time and space.”

“Physics depends on a universe infinitely centred on an equals sign.”

“One forgets
that one is one.
I must try
to
remember this.”

“… life's big. If you can't fix it, give it a spin.”

“Absolutely nothing visible to the eye provides a reason for or even evidence of those terrifying shifts which can in a matter of moments reconstitute a simple path into an extremely complicated one.”

“Beautiful women are always drawn to men they think will keep them beautiful.”

“… the finest act of seeing is necessarily always the act of not seeing something else.”

“Here then - the after math of meaning. A liftime finished between the space of two frames.”

“Keep true to the rare music in your heart, to the marvelous and unique form that is and shall always be nothing else but you. Keep to that and you can do no wrong, which I realize is easier said than done.”

“Very
soon he
will vanish

completely in the wings

of his own
wordless
stanza”

“My dear girl, is it that you are so lonely that you had to create this?”

“Scientists estimate the universe unfolded from its state of infinite destiny* - a moment commonly referred to as "the big bang" - approximately 1.3-2 x 10^10 years ago.

*Typo: "destiny" should read "density.”

“I've come to believe errors, especially written errors, are often the only markers left by a solitary life: to sacrifice them is to lose the angles of personality, the riddle of a soul. In this case a very old soul. A very old riddle.”

“Maybe you saw her first? Caught a glimpse between the lines, between the letters, like a ghost in the mirror, a ghost in the wings?”