Home > Author > Caleb Crain

Caleb Crain QUOTES

Caleb Crain QUOTES

1 " But what are they?” Annie asked.
“An omphalos, probably,” said Jacob.
“A what, dear?” Melinda asked.
“A bellybutton of the world.”
“I didn’t know it had one. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

2 " – I’m going to be a writer, he reminded Milo.
– And you won’t need literature?
– I’ll write my own. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

3 " By its nature a relationship was not an accomplishment. It was just a connection that happened to exist, for as long as it did exist. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

4 " Since he had given up men he had taken up geography. He visited a new sight or a new neighborhood nearly every weekend. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

5 " He was in the flow of time now. He was in a story. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

6 " There’s always a story that people are telling about themselves, and sometimes you can get them to tell it ever so slightly differently. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

7 " It is perhaps necessary for something dear to be lost.”
“Why?”
“Perhaps it is necessary to the making of a story. A story after all is a way of remembering love. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

8 " It’s a question of wanting to know how the story turns out. And one can only know that about one story, ever. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

9 " A year ago he had been in America. Two years ago he had been straight. Tonight he was underground, with the remains of the bogey man, lit by the torches of the children who had killed him. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

10 " I suppose it does come with a certain responsibility.”
“What does?” asked Annie.
“The magnificence of my person.”
“Gah. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

11 " Crisis – the midwife of capitalism. The ‘advisers’ arrive and say, My god, they have no predatory class here. It is an emergency! We must create one immediately. Let us arrange to give everything to a few crooks. Then this country, too, will have a mess of parasites to rule it, to suck the value of the people’s labour. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

12 " Like capitalism,” Carl suggested. “‘We’ll give you so much pleasure, you’ll never want to try another socioeconomic system. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

13 " Unable to see, they were briefly seized by the characteristic Prague anxiety of never finding the entrance--of arriving at one's goal but remaining blocked from it by a wall or a stone on account of having overlooked an alley or medieval door a few dozen yards back, which has served as the approach so immemorially that no one any longer marked or described it. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

14 " It was strange that one couldn’t know in advance which places one was later going to wish to remember. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

15 " In Rome the statues, in Paris the paintings, and in Prague the buildings suggest that pleasure can be an education. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

16 " Jacob thought about going home. He still had some American change, which he kept in an empty matchbox in his sock drawer, and one night, after he had finished his pancakes and jam, he took the coins out, spread them on the kitchen table, and admired the burnt sienna patina of one of the pennies, which in the candlelight was iridescent with violet and green where people’s touch had salted it. The portrait of Lincoln was ugly and noble, and Jacob took off his glasses to look more closely. On the other side, an erratic line of shrubbery was engraved beside the Lincoln monument’s steps. The idealism seemed to be in Lincoln rather than in the coin’s design, which was homely. It was so homely, in fact, that there was a kind of democratic grandeur to it. It was the most beautiful currency in the world. Jacob was on the verge of tears. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

17 " Everyone likes to say they’re tolerant. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

18 " The beer was cheap, the fiddling sharp, and the dancing sweaty. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

19 " To find the spirit of change—was that it?—after the change had happened. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors

20 " Would you fancy a shag?”
“Is that like a scrum?”
“It could be. "

― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors