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Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2) QUOTES

Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2) QUOTES

1 " He was a committed leader, capable of - or prone to - instinctive decisions. More: he could put aside thought in the service of forceful action. But in quiet moments his sensitivity sometimes led him to reconsider his own behaviour. In other words, Atticus had a conscience, and it was this that led him to what some would call faith. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

2 " Prince's words had not been meant as a warning. Rather, he had been playing. He had been pretending. He had been speaking for speaking's sake. Could there be a more despicable use for words? "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

3 " Death was in every fibre of these creatures. It was hidden in their languages and at the root of their civilizations. You could hear it in the sounds they made and see it in the way they moved. It darkened their pleasures and lightened their despair. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

4 " The white dogs with black spots were the worst. It wasn't so much their aggression; other dogs were sometimes even more aggressive. It was that they were - without question - the stupidest creatures on earth, and that was even if one included cats. It was useless to try reasoning with them, whatever language one chose. Worse, you could never tell when one of them would come at you. It was not in his nature to hate other dogs, but Benjy disliked Dalmatians the way some humans dislike men named Steve or Biff. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

5 " Also intriguing was all the bowing. The association of height and status did not, of course, faze him. If anything, it made the Japanese seem noble. But where were the ones who made themselves big? That was the question. With so many people bowing down, it seemed to Majnoun like a competition amongst the low to see who could be lowest. In which case, discretion was strength, a paradox that Majnoun found almost as compelling as the film's relative absence of dogs. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

6 " Perfect understanding between beings is no guarantor of happiness. To perfectly understand another's madness, for instance, is to be mad oneself. The veil that separates earthly beings is, at times, a tragic barrier, but it is also, at times, a great kindness. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

7 " ...you can't know what a life has been until it is over. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

8 " – And yet, said Atticus, I am sometimes afraid that I will not know the feeling again, that I will never again know what it is to be a dog among dogs. This thinking of yours, black dog, it is an endless, dead field. Since the change, I have been alone with thoughts I do not want. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

9 " Nira was uncomfortable with power or even with the appearance of it. One day, she asked Majnoun if he would put her on a leash, their positions being reversed. He had answered ‘no,’ and this had made Nira feel even more uncomfortable. But Majnoun had, in fact, misunderstood her question. If she had said – Masters have agreed that their submissives must be bound to them with leashes and collars. If you were a master, would you keep me on a leash? Majnoun would, without hesitation, have answered ‘yes.’ If she had been his submissive, he would naturally have treated her according to the custom. Order in a pack is maintained through convention, and it made no sense, as far as Majnoun was concerned, to overturn conventions that worked. But he had understood her question on a more practical level. He had thought of how awkward it would be for him to hold a leash in his mouth while Nira walked about on her hands and knees. Understanding the question as he had, the only possible answer had been the ‘no’ he’d given.) "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

10 " The grass is wet on the hill. The sky has no end. For the dog who waits for his mistress, Madge, noon comes again. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

11 " ... she refused to allow anyone - even Miguel - to refer to Majnoun as 'her' dog.
- I'm as much his as he's mine, she'd insist.
Her friends - and her husband - thought this an annoying eccentricity. Majnoun knew what she meant - that she was not his master - and he was grateful. But in his heart he felt as if he did belong to her, in the sense that he was a part of Nira and she a part of him. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

12 " Just listen to these people. You'd swear they understood each other though not one of them has any idea what their words actually mean to another. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

13 " Beyond the hills, a master is who knows our secret names. With bell and bones, he’ll call us home, winter, fall or spring. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

14 " The light that moves is not the light. The light that stays is not the light. The true light rose countless sleeps ago. It rose, even in the mouth of birds. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

15 " One morning, they discovered that they’d dreamed of the same field, the same clouds, the same house in the distance – wooden with a red-brick chimney. They had dreamed of the same squirrels and rabbits. They had drunk from the same clear stream. There was only one difference: when Nira, in her dream, looked into the water, she saw Majnoun’s face reflected back at her, while Majnoun, in his, saw Nira’s face where his should have been. The fact of this shared dream was so moving to Nira that, ever after, she refused to allow anyone – even Miguel – to refer to Majnoun as ‘her’ dog. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

16 " This new thinking leads away from the pack, but a dog is no dog if he does not belong. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

17 " In the sunny world, with its small things moving too fast, I shy away from light and in the attic cuss the dark. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

18 " What is the name of he who comes with eyes closed and fingers black, the one who draws the curtains back when dawn has come? ‘Agha Thanatos’ or just plain ‘Death’? When will I know which is right? "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

19 " why is there day, why must night come … – Pablo Neruda, ‘Ode to a Dog "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)

20 " We bound into the prairie through ages of Winter grass, taking the path Ina took. Her name long gone, though her roads linger. The ground will not forget. or   Longing to be sprayed (the green snake writhing in his master’s hand), back and forth into that stream – jump, rinse: coat slick with soap. "

― André Alexis , Fifteen Dogs (Quincunx, #2)