01c. 1973 ADLet me tell ya. You gotta pay attention to signs. When life reaches out with a moment like this it's a sin if you don't reach back... I'm telling you.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
02c. 1973 ADAnd I still love you in my own fucked-up way. I miss you, I really do. Can we still be friends?Matthew Quick / quote ↗
03c. 1973 ADLife is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly. Literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for us to endure nobly.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
04c. 1973 ADI can always look up at the cosmos and marvel, no matter what happens. And when I look up at it, I feel as though my problems are small. I don't know why, but it always makes me feel better.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
05c. 1973 ADAir goes in and outof my nose, throat, lungs, blood, heartbrain - and so I amMatthew Quick / quote ↗
06c. 1973 ADYou need to make time for your family no matter what happens in your lifeMatthew Quick / quote ↗
07c. 1973 ADSounds like the start of a beautiful friendship, Leonard. It really does.” “Here’s looking at you, kid.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
08c. 1973 ADWhy would god allow the Holocaust to happen? If god made everything, why did he invent sin to trick us and then hold our sins against us? Why are there so many religions in the world if god created the world and wants us to be Christian? Why does god allow people to fight wars over him? What if you were born in a different culture and never even heard of Jesus Christ—would god send you to hell for not being Christian? And if so, do you believe that's fair? Why are men always the leaders in your church? Aren't women capable of leading too? Isn't such a patriarchal system sexist in this day and age? Why do so many babies die? Why are there so many poor people in the world? Did Jesus visit any other planets in distant unknown universes?Matthew Quick / quote ↗
09c. 1973 ADThere are a lot of lonely kids in this world, but the problem is that they don't know about each other. If the lonely kids could just team up, a lot of good things would happen, but the world is incredibly afraid of lonely people teaming up, and so it does its best to keep them apart.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
11c. 1973 ADAlthough once when we were talking after class, Herr Silverman told me that when someone rises up and holds himself to a higher standard, even when doing so benefits others, average people resent it, mostly because they’re not strong enough to do the same.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
12c. 1973 ADyou don’t put demands on people and you never say anything negative--ever. So many people suck the life out of everyone they’re around, but you don’t do that. You give people strength just by being you.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
13c. 1973 ADSo the key is doing something that sets you apart forever in the minds of regular people.Something that matters.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
14c. 1973 ADThere's a lot for you to live for. Good things are definitely in your future, Leonard. I'm sure of it. You have no idea how many interesting people you'll meet after high school's over. Your life partner, your best friend, the most wonderful person you'll ever know is sitting in some high school right now waiting to graduate and walk into your life - maybe even feeling all the same things you are, maybe even wondering about you, hoping that you're strong enough to make it to the future where you'll meet.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
15c. 1973 ADReal life often ends badly, like our marriage did, Pat. And literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for people to endure nobly.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
16c. 1973 ADI'm trying to let him know what I'm about to do.I'm hoping he can save me, even though I realize he can't.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
17c. 1973 ADOf course I began to see Nikki, which was strange because I was staring into Danny's eyes, and Danny is a six-foot-three black man who looks nothing like my ex-wife.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
18c. 1973 ADAnother thought hits me hard as a lawn dart to the eye: this moment is so terribly unimportant to the rest of the world, yet it means everything to me somehow - and it's enough.So I sign and I sign and I sign.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
19c. 1973 AD...Daisy doesn't even go to his funeral, Nick and Jordan part ways, and Daisy ends up sticking with racist Tom... you can tell Fitzgerald never took the time to look up at clouds during sunset, because there's no silver lining at the end of that book, let me tell you. I do see why Nikki likes the novel, as it's written so well. But her liking it makes me worry now that Nikki really doesn't believe in silver linings, because she says The Great Gatsby is the greatest novel ever written by an American, and yet it ends so sadly. One thing's for sure, Nikki is going to be very proud of me when I tell her I finally read her favorite book. -Silver Linings Playbook, p. 9Matthew Quick / quote ↗
20c. 1973 ADI've seen the way you've been looking at me. Don't bullshit me, Pat. I live in the addition around back, which is completely separate from the house, so there's no chance of my parents walking in on us. I hate the fact that you wore a football jersey to dinner, but you can fuck me as long as we turn the lights out first. Okay?Matthew Quick / quote ↗
21c. 1973 ADI found posts about how to slit your wrists the "right way", so you will actually die, and that depressed me, because people actually post stuff like that, and even though I wanted to know the answer, so I could weigh my options, that info maybe shouldn't be on the internet...But really - why do some people post the correct ways to commit suicide on the internet? Do they want weird, sad people like me to go away permanently? Do they think it's a good idea for some people to off themselves? How can you tell when you are one of those people who should slash his wrists the right way with a razor blade? Is there an answer for that too? I Googled but nothing concrete came up. Just ways to complete the mission. Not justification.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
22c. 1973 ADI was right; just as soon as you take the first step toward getting to know someone your own age, everything you thought was magical about that person turns to shit right in front of your faceMatthew Quick / quote ↗
23c. 1973 ADYou need to know it's your actions that will make you a good person, not desire.Matthew Quick / quote ↗
24c. 1973 ADLook, sometimes it’s OK with girls like this, they wanna have fun, and sometimes it’s not because they've got a broken wing and they’re hurt and they’re an easy target. In this case, this particular case, I think that wing is being fixed, my friend, and you gotta make sure that it’s mended and you’re getting in the way of that right now, okay, because she’s sensitive and she’s smart, she’s artistic. This is a great girl, you gotta be respectful to that. Come on, let me walk you to your car, you’re a better guy than this.Matthew Quick / quote ↗