And therefore I looked down into the great pity of a personโs life on this earth. I donโt mean that we all end up dead, thatโs not the great pity. I mean that he couldnโt tell me what he was dreaming, and I couldnโt tell him what was real.
Denis JohnsonAll his life Robert Grainier would remember vividly the burned valley at sundown, the most dreamlike business heโd ever witnessed wakingโthe 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 JohnsonI really enjoy writing novels. Its like the ocean. You can just build a boat and take off.
Denis JohnsonAll the modern verse plays, they're terrible; they're mostly about the poetry. It's more important that the play is first.
Denis JohnsonWill 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