Book of Quotes

Ordinary People

Ordinary People by Judith Guest

- "To have a reason to get up in the morning, it is necessary to process a guiding principle. A belief of some kind."

- Lay off. Quit riding yourself. Less pressure more humor go with the stuff that makes you laugh."

- "Haven't lost your sense of humor after all but your sense of identity is what seems to have been misplaced. No. Wrong. You don't lose what you never had."

- "Why are you writing all this about violence and war?"

- "Cherry is nineteen. Lord, was he ever that young? Cherry. Now, who the hell would give a daughter that silly name? Nobody would. It's a fake, like the smile."

- "I'm the kind of man who -- hasn't the least idea what kind of man I am."

- "Okay Karen we'll see you around who needs you anyway who the fuck needs anybody?"

- "The only way to deal with absurdity is to recognize it."

- "Stay calm. It will come don't think about anything else just the problem easy does it confidence."

- "He has pushed everyone away who tries to help. If he could apologize. If he only could but they are no longer at home to him and it is not their fault. All his fault. All connections with him result in failure. Loss. Evil."

- "And a family turns inward toward itself in grief, it does not go in separate directions, pulling itself apart. Like hell it doesn't. Grief is ugly. It is isolating. It is not something to be shared with others, it is something to be afraid of, to get rid of, and fast. Get those months, days, hours, minutes out of the way, it can't be quick enough."

- "Standing on the front porch of her house, he nervously shoves his hands in his pockets; pulls them out again. Too casual. Wouldn't want her mother to get the wrong impression."

- "Safety and order. Definitely the priorities of his life. He is not a man inclined toward risk. There. A definition at last. I am a man who believes in safety."

- "You are always. Fucking up. You never mean to. Never mean to doesn't mean shit."

- "And it wasn't Stillman, anyway it wasn't even him but some other fucking bastard I didn't even know who said it the world is full of fucking bastards so it's all pointless you can't fight everybody and what goddam difference would it make if you could?"

- "She can't help it if she's afraid of strangers."

- "'You got plans for this weekend?' he asks.

'I thought I'd cruise through town, run a few red lights, smoke some hash, get a couple girls in trouble, nothing special, why?'"

- "'You're letting your hair grow, aren't you?'

'I don't let it, Grandmother, it just does it. All on its own.'"

- "He loves doing this; the mathematics of it, organizing the notes into definite pictures. She sits watching him, elbows on her knees, chin in her hands."