Chapter Sixty Seven: Loss, Quotations, and Christmas

Because God is never cruel, there is a reason

for all things. We must know the pain of loss;

because if we never knew it, we would have

no compassion for others, and we would

become monsters of self-regard, creatures of

unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss

teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the

power to soften uncaring hearts,

to make a better person of a good one.

Dean Koontz, The Darkest Evening

of the Year

CcC

Writers remember everything . . . especially

the hurts. Strip a writer to the buff, point to

the scars, and he'll tell you the story of each

small one. From the big ones you get novels.

A little talent is a nice thing to have if you want

to be a writer, but the only real requirement

is the ability to remember the story of every

scar. Art consists of the persistence of memory.

Stephen King, Misery

CcC

The books transported her to new worlds

and introduced her to people who lived exciting

lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships

with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with

Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard

Kipling. She travelled all over the world while

sitting in her little room in an English village.

Roald Dahl, Matilda

CcC

Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start

out so passionate, brave, noble, believing,

become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty

or thirty-five. Why is it that one is extinguished

by consumption, another puts a bullet in his

head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards,

a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish,

cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of

his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once

fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost

one thing, we do not seek another? Why?

Anton P. Chekhov, The Complete

Short Novels

CcC

He wrapped himself in quotations -

as a beggar would enfold himself

in the purple of Emperors.

Rudyard Kipling, Many Inventions

CcC

When I was a child, adults would always tell

me not to make things up, warning me of what

would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far,

it seems to involve lots of foreign travel and

not having to get up too early in the morning.

Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors:

Short Fiction and Illusions

CcC

The true genius shudders at incompletenes

-- imperfection -- and usually prefers silence

to saying the something which is not

everything that should be said.

Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia

CcC

Then the Grinch thought of something

he hadn't before! What if Christmas,

he thought, doesn't come from a store.

What if Christmas . . . perhaps . . .

means a little bit more!

Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch

Stole Christmas!

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