It was hard to remember in the heavy and sensual clarity of these mornings; I forgot whom I hated and who hated me. I wanted to break out crying from stabs of hopeless joy, or intolerable promise, or because these mornings were too full of beauty for me, because I knew of too much hate to be contained in a world like this.
John KnowlesNever say you are five feet nine when you are five feet eight and a half" was the first one I encountered. Another was, "Always say some prayers at night because it might turn out that there is a God.
John KnowlesAs I said, this was my sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.
John KnowlesI lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.
John KnowlesBut I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved.
John KnowlesI felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.
John KnowlesYour war memories will be with you forever, you'll be asked about them thousands of times after the war is over. People will get their respect for you from that-partly from that, don't get me wrong-but if you can say that you were up front where there was some real shooting going on, then that will mean a whole lot to you in years to come.
John Knowles