“Down through the ceiling comes a fire siren and people screaming that we're supposed to ignore. The gunshots and tires squeeling, sounds wee have to pretend are okay. They don't mean anything. It's just television. An explosion vibrates down from the upstairs. A woman begs someone not to rape her. It's not real. It's just a movie. We're the culture that cried wolf.”
Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 17
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Chuck Palahniuk 555
American novelist, essayist 1962Related quotes

“The sirens are screaming and the fires are howling
Way down in the valley tonight.”
Bat out of Hell (1977), Bat out of Hell (song)
Context: The sirens are screaming and the fires are howling
Way down in the valley tonight.
There's a man in the shadows with a gun in his eye
And a blade shining oh so bright.
There's evil in the air
And there's thunder in the sky
And a killer's on the bloodshot streets.

Source: Andrew Yang & John McWhorter on Dave Chappelle and 'Transphobia', (2021)

Main Street (1920)
Context: I think perhaps we want a more conscious life. We're tired of drudging and sleeping and dying. We're tired of seeing just a few people able to be individualists. We're tired of always deferring hope till the next generation. We're tired of hearing politicians and priests and cautious reformers... coax us, 'Be calm! Be patient! Just give us a bit more time and we’ll produce it; trust us; we’re wiser than you!' For ten thousand years they've said that. We want our Utopia now— and we're going to try our hands at it.

“Nobody's perfect. We're all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels.”
Source: Half Broke Horses

“I was tired of secrets, tired of seeing things I was not supposed to see. And so I just cried.”
Source: A Painted House