Denis Johnson Quotes - Page 2

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Feelings Giving Heart Jesus Lying Mothers Wife

We in Purgatory sing fondly of Hell.

Denis Johnson

Hell, Purgatory

Denis Johnson (2016). “Tree of Smoke”, p.191, Pan Macmillan

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Its always been my tendency to lie to doctors, as if good health consisted only of the ability to fool them.

Denis Johnson

Lying, Doctors, Fool

Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.9, Macmillan

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Memories assailed him of how gently she had spoken, touched, and moved; of how she'd loved him fiercely despite his mistakes and obsessions and weaknesses. And the conviction descended on him that love like theirs couldn't possibly suffer any change.

Denis Johnson

Memories, Mistake, Suffering

Denis Johnson (1983). “Angels”, Knopf

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All his life Robert Grainier would remember vividly the burned valley at sundown, the most dreamlike business he’d ever witnessed waking—the brilliant pastels of the last light overhead, some clouds high and white, catching daylight from beyond the valley, others ribbed and gray and pink, the lowest of them rubbing the peaks of Bussard and Queen mountains; and beneath this wondrous sky the black valley, utterly still, the train moving through it making a great noise but unable to wake this dead world.

Denis Johnson

Queens, Moving, Clouds

Denis Johnson (2012). “Train Dreams”, p.30, Granta Books

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And you, you ridiculous people, you expect me to help you.

Denis Johnson

People, Ridiculous, Helping

Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.10, Macmillan

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I'll never forget you. Your husband will beat you with an extension cord and the bus will pull away leaving you standing there in tears, but you were my mother.

Denis Johnson

Mother, Husband, Leaving

Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.39, Macmillan

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The movie's not over till everybody's dead.

Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson (2016). “Tree of Smoke”, p.176, Pan Macmillan

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I'd been staying at the Holiday Inn with my girlfriend, honestly the most beautiful woman I'd ever known, for three days under a phony name, shooting heroin. We made love in the bed, ate steaks at the restaurant, shot up in the john, puked, cried, accused one another, begged of one another, forgave, promised, and carried one another to heaven.

Denis Johnson

Beautiful, Girlfriend, Holiday

"Jesus' Son". Book by Denis Johnson, December 1992.

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The traveling salesmen fed me pills that made the lining of my veins feel scraped out, my jaw ached... I knew every raindrop by its name, I sensed everything before it happened. Like I knew a certain oldsmobile would stop even before it slowed, and by the sweet voices of the family inside, I knew we'd have an accident in the rain. I didn't care. They said they'd take me all the way.

Denis Johnson

Sweet, Rain, Names

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The abyss is full of reality, the abyss experiences itself, the abyss is alive.

Denis Johnson

Reality, Alive, Abyss

Denis Johnson (2016). “Tree of Smoke”, p.287, Pan Macmillan

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With each step my heart broke for the person I would never find, the person who'd love me.

Denis Johnson

Heart, Steps, Broke

Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.23, Macmillan

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She wanted to eat my heart and be lost in the desert with what she'd done, she wanted to fall on her knees and give birth from it, she wanted to hurt me as only a child can be hurt by its mother.

Denis Johnson

Mother, Hurt, Children

Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.84, Macmillan

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Will you believe me when I tell you there was kindness in his heart? His left hand didn't know what his right hand was doing. It was only that certain important connections had been burned through. If I opened up your head and ran a hot soldering iron around in your brain, I might turn you into someone like that.

Denis Johnson

Kindness, Believe, Heart

Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.31, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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I hate two kinds of sentences you hear in workshops, the ones beginning "I really like ..." and the ones beginning "My problem with this poem is ..."

Denis Johnson

Hate, Teaching, Two

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All the modern verse plays, they're terrible; they're mostly about the poetry. It's more important that the play is first.

Denis Johnson

Play, Important, Firsts

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There's so much goop inside of us, man," he said, "and it all just wants to get out.

Denis Johnson

Men, Want, Said

Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.40, Macmillan

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Before this moment I'd lived as a mind. Body, heart, soul, intellect, so we care ourselves into parts. But the whole of us, what can it be?

Denis Johnson

Heart, Soul, Mind

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I knew every raindrop by its name.

Denis Johnson

Names, Raindrops

Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.5, Macmillan

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He got right down in the dark between heartbeats, and rested there. And then he saw that another one wasn't going to come. That's it. That's the last. He looked at the dark. I would like to take this opportunity, he said, to pray for another human being.

Denis Johnson

Dark, Opportunity, Lasts

Denis Johnson (1983). “Angels”, Knopf

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It was only when you left it alone that a tree might treat you as a friend. After the blade bit in, you had yourself a war.

Denis Johnson

War, Tree, Might

Denis Johnson (2012). “Train Dreams”, p.12, Granta Books

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I have the belief in boldness. What I generally lack is the boldness itself. Because boldness doesn't feel bold. It feels scared not brave.

Denis Johnson

Brave, Belief, Scared

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Sometimes I heard voices muttering in my head, and a lot of the time the world seemed to smolder around its edges. but I was in a little better physical shape every day, I was getting my looks back, and my spirits were rising, and this was all in all a happy time for me. All these weirdos, and me getting a little better right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us.

Denis Johnson

Voice, Happy Times, People

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Death is the mother of beauty.

Denis Johnson

Beauty, Mother

Denis Johnson (1983). “Angels”, Knopf

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If you take a lie and allow your desire for the truth, you'll end up with some truth - not fact, but something that gets you closer to the truth. That's what we want. When we go to a play, we need to be assured that the experience we're having.

Denis Johnson

Lying, Play, Desire

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There were many moments in the Vine like that one--where you might think today was yesterday, and yesterday was tomorrow, and so on. Because we all believed we were tragic, and we drank. We had that helpless, destined feeling. We would die with handcuffs on. We would be put a stop to, and it wouldn't be our fault. So we imagined. And yet we were always being found innocent for ridiculous reasons.

Denis Johnson

Thinking, Yesterday, Feelings

Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.32, Macmillan

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Born: July 1, 1949
Occupation: Writer
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