quotes from criss cross
these quotes are so good that they just have to be written down.
"i think," he said, "that it's a good thing to get out of your usual, you know, surroundings. because you find things out about yourself that you didn't know, or you forgot. and then you go back to your regular life and you're changed, you're a little bit different because you take those new things with you. like a hindu, except all in one life: you sort of get reincarnated depending on what happened and what you figure out. and any one place can make you go forward, or backward, or neither, but gradually you find all your pieces, your important pieces, and they stay with you, so that you're your whole self no matter where you go. your buddha self. that's my theory, anyway." (p. 267)
"debbie wondered if it was true that there was only one person in the world for every person, and if she had already met him, and she either had to find a way to be around him again someday or always be alone. romance-wise. she didn't quite believe this. what seemed more likely was that there were at least five or six people scattered around the globe who you could bump into and, wham, it would be the right thing... debbie's handful were... passing her by in a crowd, unsuspecting." (p. 278-279)
"but it wasn't very close, not close enough. her mother had no way of knowing that this would have been a good time to tell her daughter that she had once known a boy who went away. a boy who had made a game of finding little figures of dogs, and giving them to her. they might have talked then about how that felt, and what you did next. but their secrets inadvertently sidestepped each other, unaware, like blindfolded elephants crossing the tiny room." (p. 281)
"maybe it was another time that their moments would meet. maybe it would happen in a few days, or next week. maybe it would happen when they were fifty. but just now they had missed, and the jet trails of the crisscrossing moments left an awkward vacuum in their wake. they both felt it, though they didn't know what it was, and when they tried to guess, they both got it wrong." (p. 336)
"they sang it together, but their thoughts went off to different places, to different people. maybe the wrong places, the wrong people. how did anyone know? mistakes would have to be made. maybe a lot of mistakes. it was okay. they can't hear me, but i want to tell them it's okay, they're doing just fine." (p. 336-337)
"i think," he said, "that it's a good thing to get out of your usual, you know, surroundings. because you find things out about yourself that you didn't know, or you forgot. and then you go back to your regular life and you're changed, you're a little bit different because you take those new things with you. like a hindu, except all in one life: you sort of get reincarnated depending on what happened and what you figure out. and any one place can make you go forward, or backward, or neither, but gradually you find all your pieces, your important pieces, and they stay with you, so that you're your whole self no matter where you go. your buddha self. that's my theory, anyway." (p. 267)
"debbie wondered if it was true that there was only one person in the world for every person, and if she had already met him, and she either had to find a way to be around him again someday or always be alone. romance-wise. she didn't quite believe this. what seemed more likely was that there were at least five or six people scattered around the globe who you could bump into and, wham, it would be the right thing... debbie's handful were... passing her by in a crowd, unsuspecting." (p. 278-279)
"but it wasn't very close, not close enough. her mother had no way of knowing that this would have been a good time to tell her daughter that she had once known a boy who went away. a boy who had made a game of finding little figures of dogs, and giving them to her. they might have talked then about how that felt, and what you did next. but their secrets inadvertently sidestepped each other, unaware, like blindfolded elephants crossing the tiny room." (p. 281)
"maybe it was another time that their moments would meet. maybe it would happen in a few days, or next week. maybe it would happen when they were fifty. but just now they had missed, and the jet trails of the crisscrossing moments left an awkward vacuum in their wake. they both felt it, though they didn't know what it was, and when they tried to guess, they both got it wrong." (p. 336)
"they sang it together, but their thoughts went off to different places, to different people. maybe the wrong places, the wrong people. how did anyone know? mistakes would have to be made. maybe a lot of mistakes. it was okay. they can't hear me, but i want to tell them it's okay, they're doing just fine." (p. 336-337)