Home > Work > Necessary Errors
21 " The worse one sins, the more of a moralist one becomes. "
― Caleb Crain , Necessary Errors
22 " And suddenly it was all too much for him. He felt sad and misplaced, with the abrupt, overwhelming, dizzying sadness that comes over people in countries not their own, which has none of the richness of feeling that usually comes with sadness but is rather a kind of exhaustion. "
23 " No radio, no telephone,” Melinda observed. “No mod cons whatsoever in Hloubetin, are there.”“We have a hamster,” Jacob said.“Not traditionally considered an amenity. "
24 " I just remembered. My hamster is loose.”“Is that a thing to say to a nice girl? "
25 " It sounds disgusting, in my opinion, ‘stuffing,’” she continued. “I’d never heard of it before Rafe told me. To put your fingers inside a raw bird. It’s the sort of thing they did on the frontier, isn’t it. "
26 " They sat talking naked so often and so long perhaps because they liked to be able to read the whole opalescent page of each other at once. "
27 " They came for the freedom, they stayed for the McNuggets. "
28 " Later, holding Milo’s hand in the dark, Jacob felt that it was only in recovering it that he learned what he had been in danger of losing. The touch of Milo’s hand seemed to remind him of parts of himself that he had already begun to forget about. "
29 " Jacob opened the refrigerator and stared into it vacantly, with the false purposefulness that lingers for a few moments when a person of a solitary nature is released from the company of a strong personality. "
30 " It was a mistake to think that in the new world they would be able to care in the old way. In the new world you had to find something of value and learn not to care for it. You had to learn how to sell it. "
31 " Overhead lights flickered on and off.“It is closing soon,” Markus explained.“Now is what I call tiger time. The great beasts pad about, eyeing one another, trying to make up their minds at last. "
32 " Because the air was bright and fresh, the ground beneath them empty, and both of them young, it was possible to imagine that either of them could become anything he wanted. "
33 " It’s very strange to be completely naked in public,” said Jacob. “It isn’t something Americans ordinarily do.”“I can’t say it’s very English, either,” replied Henry.“It’s a Scottish thing, though, isn’t it? With all the kilts and all that. "
34 " What if his ambitions was just a name he gave to a kind of conformity, and he was going back because he wasn’t brave enough to live a life that wasn’t expected of him, a life so far from any road that there wouldn’t be any signposts or milestones? "
35 " They’re ruining the city, aren’t they,” remarked Rafe. “The backpackers. "
36 " The odd thing was that he had hated to be part of any group in America. Maybe he had never been in a group large enough – a group so large that he could approach vanishing in it, which was a kind of freedom – or maybe he had never been in a group devoted to freedom itself. "
37 " They’re very keen on disillusioning young women at British universities, you know, I suppose to make us resigned and grateful later on. "
38 " Everyday life continues during a love affair. "