“When I saw a policeman strolling toward me I walked away. It was a hot night. Sand from the Mojave had blown across the city. Tiny brown grains of sand clung to my fingertips whenever I touched anything, and when I got back to my room I found the mechanism of my new typewriter glutted with sand. It was in my ears and in my hair. When I took off my clothes it fell like powder to the floor. It was even between the sheets of my bed. Lying in the darkness, the red light from the St. Paul Hotel flashing on and off across my bed was bluish now, a ghastly color jumping into the room and out again.”

Ask the Dust (1939)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When I saw a policeman strolling toward me I walked away. It was a hot night. Sand from the Mojave had blown across the…" by John Fante?

John Fante113

1909–1983; American novelist, short story writer and screen… 1909–1983

Related quotes

“Shivering in fever, weak, and parched to sand,
My ears, those entrances of word-dressed thoughts,
My pictured eyes, and my assuring touch,
Fell from me, and my body turned me forth
From its beloved abode: then I was dead;
And in my grave beside my corpse I sat,
In vain attempting to return”

Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849) English poet, dramatist and physician

Dream of Dying, from The Poetical Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1890).

“I could only write at the beach, and I kept getting sand in my typewriter.”

Paul Desmond (1924–1977) American jazz musician

His reason for not pursuing a literary career
Unsourced

“I watch the boats go by
As the evening colours of the sand
The rain is bringing tears
From my lover's land
I watch the silver stars
melt in love with the sea
I cry to the wind:
– Bring back my lover to me!”

Mike Oldfield (1953) English musician, multi-instrumentalist

Song lyrics, Children of the Sun (1969)

“I dreamt we walked together along the shore. We made satisfying small talk and laughed. This morning I found sand in my shoe and a seashell in my pocket. Was I only dreaming?”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“Alone I walked on the ocean strand,
A pearly shell was in my hand;
I stooped, and wrote upon the sand
My name, the year, the day.
As onward from the sport I passed,
One lingering look behind I cast,
A wave came rolling high and fast,
And washed my lines away.”

Hannah Flagg Gould (1788–1865) American writer

"A Name In the Sand"

“I've got tears in my ears from lyin' on my back
In my bed while I cry over you.
And the tears in my ears, they're off the beaten track
Since you said "It's goodbye, we are through."”

Harold Barlow

Song; the title is variously given as Tears in my ears, I've got tears in my ears and I've got tears in my ears from lyin' on my back in my bed while I cry over you.