“ And why love things you were destined to lose? Why let yourself feel things if the feelings were doomed to die? Garth Risk Hallberg
“ Incidental, all of it, of course, but this was what this city bestowed that novels couldn't: not what you needed in order to live, but what made the living worth doing in the first place. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ Even before the letter he'd been divided: one part of him swanning with Jay Gatsby around an imaginary Gotham; the other part stolid and earthbound, nose to the deep fryer, in the stifling, sizzling S… Garth Risk Hallberg
“ I keep having this fantasy about some wide river or channel I'm on the bank of. I can look up, and on the far side is another, better self, holding hands with Mercer—that's his name, my ex—and both of… Garth Risk Hallberg
“ You assumed whatever was vivid to yourself was vivid to others, and vice versa, but she was going to make him spell it out, for the first time in either of their lives. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ College stirred in her a certain contempt for virtues like kindness and persistence. She would have appeared to have been a kind and persistent person herself, but a steady diet of Antonioni films and… Garth Risk Hallberg
“ The second this interminable wait ended, it would all start to fall away into the past, to become unreal. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ All these threads, like the ley-lines he'd read about in his Time-Life history books, converging on the Cicciaro girl, who lay there unaware, a glass-coffined beauty whose kingdom was in ruins. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ Actual artists are like mythological creatures,' she heard herself opine. 'You hear about them, but a sighting's pretty rare. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ Despite which, Charlie seems doomed to stumble around in the dark, clutching pieces of a puzzle he still can't see. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ He was a priest now, pagan, half-naked in the night, performing obscure rites of interment. Or he was the lead player in his own novel, or in one of those new arcade games William loved, compelled to… Garth Risk Hallberg
“ Even the kids, behind the slice of streetscape floating in the glass, had mastered the art of pretending not to see. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ He wanted to flee in shame, to the kitchenette, to the next room, to the fire escapes and rooftops and the places where the city ended. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ There were two options—call the foul or don't—and either way, he would lose, but there was a thrill here in this moment when actual combat might have replaced the shadowboxing he'd been doing for mont… Garth Risk Hallberg
“ Famous revolutionary,' you say, and the laughter pumps out of your chest like blood, great almost painful spurts of it splashing up the building faces toward the marquee moon. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ Her eyes were glistening, but for some reason he couldn't reach out and touch her. It was like some gestures were so simple they were beyond him. Garth Risk Hallberg
“ A funny thing happened post-diagnosis. They put him on drugs, things went up and down, but he lived. He lived. It was like a waiting room where they kept not calling your name. Garth Risk Hallberg
