Quotes from book

The Secret History

“I suppose the shock of recognition is one of the nastiest shocks of all.”

“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.”

“Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.”

“And the nights, bigger than imagining: black and gusty and enormous, disordered and wild with stars.”

“If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.”

“There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty - unless she is wed to something more meaningful - is always superficial.”

“Any action, in the fullness of time, sinks to nothingness.”

“All those layers of silence upon silence.”

“There was a horrible, erratic thumping in my chest, as if a large bird was trapped inside my ribcage and beating itself to death.”

“Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw," that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature?”