Ian McGuire QUOTES

21 " Ci allontaniamo dal Signore perché il Signore ci permette di farlo. E' la nostra libertà, ma anche la nostra condanna. "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

22 " When Sumner tells him he needs a berth and will pay whatever is required for the privilege, the Swede looks him over skeptically, smiles, and asks how many men he has murdered. “Only the one,” Sumner says. "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

23 " Le domande più importanti sono quelle cui non possiamo sperare di rispondere con le parole. Le parole sono come giocattoli, per un po' ci divertono e ci insegnano qualcosa, ma quando diventiamo adulti dobbiamo rinunciarci. "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

24 " Le parole sono tutto quello che abbiamo. Se ci rinunciamo non siamo migliori delle bestie. "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

25 " chromolithograph "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

26 " He hasn’t joined them—he is not an Esquimaux any more than he is a Christian or an Irishman or a doctor. He is nothing, and that is a privilege and a joy he is loath to give up. "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

27 " All day the wind blows steadily from the south. The "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

28 " Only actions count, he thinks for the ten-thousandth time, only events. All the rest is vapor, fog. He takes another drink and licks his lips. It is a grave mistake to think too much, he reminds himself, a grave mistake. Life will not be puzzled out, or blathered into submission; it must be lived through, survived, in whatever fashion a man can manage. Sumner "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

29 " All we ever get to know is this one moment, he thinks, this single now. The darkness releases us, and then the darkness takes us back, and if it’s not pure and abject fear that keeps us living, then what else can it be? "

― Ian McGuire , The Abstainer

30 " Words are just noises in a certain order, and he can use them any way he wishes. Pigs grunt, ducks quack, and men tell lies: that is how it generally goes. "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

31 " It is the body, he thinks, not the mind. It is the blood, the chemistry that counts. In a few more minutes he is feeling much better about himself and about the world. "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

32 " No man has ever caught a whale this far north in August,” he says. “Read the records if you doubt me. We’re wasting our time here at best, and if we enter the sound we’re putting ourselves at risk also.” “A man don’t profit unless he takes a little risk from time to time,” Cavendish says lightly. “You should show more boldness, Mr. Black.” “It is foolishness, not boldness, to enter Lancaster Sound this late in the season,” Black says. “Why Brownlee took us north again I can’t say, but I know if he were here, even he would not consider taking us into the sound.” “What Brownlee would or wouldn’t do is moot, I’d say, since he can’t speak or even raise his hand to wipe his arse. And since I’m the one in command now, not you or him”—he nods at Otto—“I guess what I say goes.” “This voyage is marked with enough calamity already. Do you really want to add yet more to the total?” “Let me tell you something about myself,” Cavendish says, leaning in a little and lowering his voice. “Unlike some, perhaps, I don’t come whaling for fresh air or for the fine sea views. I don’t even come for the pleasing company of men like you and Otto here. I come whaling to get my money, and I will get my money any way I can. If your opinions came in gold with the Queen’s head stamped upon ’em I might pay them a little mind, but since they don’t, you won’t be too offended, I hope, if I take no fucking notice of them at all.” When "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

33 " The covering stones have been scattered and the corpse itself has been half-consumed by animals. All that is left is a grotesque and bloody gallimaufry of bones, sinew, and innards. "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

34 " The baleen is then detached from the jaw with spades and separated into smaller sections for stowing. What remains of the upper jawbone is stowed in the hold. “By Christmas, the bones of this dead and gruesome stinker will be nestling in the delicately perfumed corsets of some as yet unfucked lovely dancing the Gay Gordons in a ballroom on the Strand. That’s a thought to fairly make your head spin, is it not, Mr. Black?” Cavendish says. “Behind every piece of sweet-smelling female loveliness lies a world of stench and doggery,” Black agrees. “He’s a lucky man who can forget that’s true or pretend it isn’t.” After "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

35 " sea leopard, "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water

36 " Death, he believes, is a kind of making, a kind of building up. What was one thing, he thinks, is become something else. "

― Ian McGuire , The North Water