Home > Author > Chris Bohjalian
101 " Some are just businessmen. "
― Chris Bohjalian , The Guest Room
102 " ontological "
103 " Tsunamis. School shootings. Syria. We watch it, we read about it, and then we move on. As a species, we're either very resilient or super callous. I don't know which. "
― Chris Bohjalian , Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
104 " My dad and Patricia viewed my decision to become a vegetarian largely in terms of the way it seemed to complicate their dinner menus. "
― Chris Bohjalian , Trans-Sister Radio
105 " But if you are a person who needs no one’s approval, you are probably crazy and live alone on an island or the top of a mountain somewhere. "
106 " A term came to her that they used on occasion at the shelter: the double bind...They used the expression in much the same way that they would use a term like catch-22. "
― Chris Bohjalian , The Double Bind
107 " Elena believed that reportage like that might be compelling and beautiful, but it would never gain traction in the Age of the Troll. In the Age of Mass Shootings. In the Age of the Suicide Bomb in the Crowd. "
― Chris Bohjalian , The Flight Attendant
108 " If you were Bill Clinton, how did you justify Monica Lewinsky to Chelsea? What did you say about the cigar and the beret and the little blue dress? If you were Anthony Weiner, how in the world did you explain to your daughter your apparently insatiable need to text pictures of your junk to strange women? "
109 " Stories, after all, are merely memories given a certain tangibility with words, and it only takes a few words to subsume a memory completely. "
― Chris Bohjalian , The Law of Similars
110 " Allah dwells in all men, even the infidel,” he says. "
― Chris Bohjalian , The Sandcastle Girls
111 " You want to know the definition of a consultant? A guy who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is. "
112 " Did you ever read Carlo Levi?” “No.” “You should—if you like Tolstoy. He wrote beautifully about Italian peasants. My people, once. He had a soul like Tolstoy. ‘The future has an ancient heart.’ I think I have that right. "
113 " Becoming a flight attendant was at once rebellion and escape "
― Chris Bohjalian , Wingspan
114 " She did it because it was, like so much else that made her happy, dangerous and self-destructive and just a little bit sick. "
115 " Pain came in all colors and sizes, much of it far worse than the pricks and aches and fever dreams that affected the body "
116 " This was the pain that gouged out great holes in the soul, hollowing out self-esteem and cratering a person's self respect "
117 " . . . she would convince herself that she wasn’t destined for Hell because in all other ways she led a good life. An exemplary life. And though she understood that works alone could not buy one’s salvation, the fact that she wanted so desperately to behave well was a favorable indication. "
― Chris Bohjalian , Hour of the Witch
118 " There were people in the world who were good and people who were evil, but most of them were some mixture of both and did what they did simply because they were mortal. And her Lord? ... He knew it all and had known it all and always would know it all. "
119 " And while envy was a mortal sin, it grew rampant in everyone’s soul; it was but a dandelion, a weed that was unstoppable here and one learned to live with. It was a character flaw far less dire than the sort of mean streak that led a man to stab a fork into his wife’s hand. "
120 " We are mortal. Nothing that touches us or we touch here is forever. Even rocks are rubbed small by the river. "