Mark Z. Danielewski citations

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

“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.”

“We all create stories to protect ourselves.”

“This is not for you.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Losing the possibility of something is the exact same thing as losing hope and without hope nothing can survive.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”