All 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 JohnsonAnd 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 JohnsonSometimes what I wouldn't give to have us sitting in a bar again at 9:00 a.m. telling lies to one another, far from God.
Denis JohnsonThey needed to share one secret after another with a beautiful woman, to peel away layer after layer, mask after mask, and still find themselves worshiped.
Denis Johnson