Clement Gerardo > Clement's Quotes

“Being tall and in a scarlet SIB uniform I looked as incongruous as a sunflower in a cabbage field”
― Murray Bailey, The Prisoner of Acre

“I have a question for you Water. What happens to the water in my body if I get angry at someone or if someone gets angry with me?”

“A very good question,” said Water. “In either case, the water in your body gets upset and causes you to not feel very well. You feel sad, or maybe you will cry. Crying is good because it puts good endorphins into your body, and you will start to feel better. They help the water in your body to recover.”
― Ellen J. Lewinberg, Joey and His Friend Water

“He opened the door wearing an oversized wife-beater and dirty trunks to match. Funny, but he recognized me withouta struggle. Immediately, I assumed he was sober, which was a good thing. Yet, seeing me wasn’t expected or desired. For sure, I was the last person on his list of surprises. Jerry adjusted his head and sharpened his bloodshot eyes. It wasthen his booze-bated breath greeted me well before he did. Ok, he was in a stupor or maybe on the rebound. Next, soiled diapers stole the little oxygen I had left—and I was still OUTDOORS.
Yet somehow, I mustered enough wind to greet my brother. I tried to beat him to the punch and said, “What’s up bruh?” What happened next stomped my soul me for years to come! He never bothered to truly acknowledge me. Yet, heresponded without hesitation, “You know I can’t have

any company!” Then he violently slammed the door shut! Jerry was gone! I couldn’t differentiate
from being stupid or dumbstruck. I just stood silent on his porch all alone for about five minutes. I’d dealt with Jerry’s nastiness many times before. But he would initially warm up before dropping his hammer. Without a doubt, l was lost, confused, and bewildered like a teen-age boy losing a prom date. Foolishly, I used logic to dissect my embarrassment.
First, the guy scolded me as if I should’ve known better! To be fair, Jerry was the breadwinner. His wife left him years ago. That part I understood. Only a fool would have hung around his crazy ass. It was amazing they got together, let alone stayed that way long enough to create those children. Yet, all his kids were pushing the ages of twenty andabove. What the hell did he mean, “I can’t receive any company!” Of course, I heard those crying babies which madehim a granddaddy. That was strangely obvious to his existence. Yes, the cycle continues!
Second, I really didn’t care to go inside. I didn’t want to be in his business. I just wanted his input on Aunt Kathy’s memorial.”
― Harold Phifer, My Bully, My Aunt, & Her Final Gift

“My mother—with all the embarrassment and hurt that she caused me in my youth—ended up giving me the drive and the fire I needed to be more and to do more.”
― Vernon Davis, Playing Ball: Life Lessons from My Journey to the Super Bowl and Beyond

“The bang of the modernist metal doorknocker exploded in the room. Jolting upright on the edge of the couch, Isa froze, her heart beating a discordance of dread. Her mind went blank as she stared
at the door. No.”
― Margarita Barresi, A Delicate Marriage

“We all care about what others think. Those that say the don’t will ponder how others feel about that. ”
― C. Toni Graham

“We think that the word 'boy' or the the word 'girl' says something about who a person is, who they will be. But that difference is much less dictated by the body they're born in than created by what we expect of them and how we treat each other.”
― Sara Pascoe

“The American generals could only think in terms of large armies and huge battles. They believed or hoped that an enemy who chose to hide in jungles and tunnels would quickly be flushed out by American fire-power and then die in open battle.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“Her lips silently formed three words, oh my love.”
― Gabriel F.W. Koch, Steel Blood

“You don't have to like all children. Just one. And children don't need the world's best parents, just their own parents. To be perfectly honest with you, what they need most of the time is a chauffeur.”
― Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

“I will write my way into another life.”
― Ann Patchett, Truth & Beauty

“And I have tried to forget him, I have tried to convince myself that it was just one of those things, but it’s difficult to do that when my body is standing here, eight feet deep in the earth of northern France, while my heart remains by a stream in a clearing in England where I left it weeks ago.”
― John Boyne, The Absolutist

“Alors qu'est-ce que j'ai ? Est-ce que je suis une espèce de mouton noir, un vilain petit canard ? Un laissé pour compte ? Une erreur !”
― Beatrice Sparks, Go Ask Alice

“For me you're only a little boy just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you have no need of me, either. For you I'm only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, we'll need each other. You'll be the only boy in the world for me. I'll be the only fox in the world for you....”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“Everyone was in position by 9 p.m. Merlin and Bridges had taken the Charing Cross conveniences, Johnson Leicester Square and Price Piccadilly Circus. It was agreed that Robinson would move back and forth between the three locations and act as a go-between.”
― Mark Ellis, Death of an Officer

“Whither be the heart of Justice?
            Lo, in stone, child. Lo, in stone.
            Whither be the heart of Justice?
            Lo, tis fast in stone.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“Death is the ultimate test of faith.”
― Gabriel F.W. Koch, Death Leaves a Shadow

“Your wish, my Qu—”
I press my finger to his lips. “Let us race.”
“You will not win.” Holden grabs my wrist and kisses it.”
― Tricia Copeland, To be a Fae Guardian

“He desperately tried to think of a story to explain his involvement in her sudden appearance, without mentioning the book of magic in his possession.
 ”
― Max Nowaz, The Three Witches and the Master

“You see, there are no pretty pink flowers in the woods at night.”
― J.K. Franko, Eye for Eye

“The Mother of God. Good-looking. Well-dressed. A good person. Knows how to make the absolute best of a situation. And never uppity about any of it.”
― Kathleen Zamboni McCormick, Dodging Satan: My Irish/Italian, Sometimes Awesome, But Mostly Creepy, Childhood

“The three species of pine native to Wisconsin (white, red and jack) differ radically in their opinions about marriageable age. The precocious jackpine sometimes bloom and bears cones a year or two after leaving the nursery, and a few of my 13-year-old jacks already boast of grandchildren. My 13-year-old reds first bloomed this year, but my whites have not yet bloomed; they adhere closely to the Anglo-Saxon doctrine of free, white, and twenty-one.”
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There

“For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me.”
― a.a. milne, The World of Winnie-the-Pooh

“I’m obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.

Always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious.
Movie producers are serious. Everybody’s serious
but me.”
― Allen Ginsberg, Howl and Other Poems

“that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world,”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe