Quotes from Daniel Keyes

I realize now that my feeling for Alice had been moving backward against the current of my learning, from worship, to love, to fondness, to a feeling of gratitude and responsibility.

Who's to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who's to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say? . . .

Seeing Charlie huddled beneath the covers I wish I could give him comfort, explain to him that he has done nothing wrong, that it is beyond him to change his mother's attitude back to what it was before his sister came. There on the bed, Charlie did not understand what they were saying, but now it hurts. If I could reach out into the past of my memories, I would make her see how much she was hurting me.

Nothing in our minds is ever really gone. The operation had covered him over with a veneer of education and culture, but emotionally he was there—watching and waiting.

Door's open!" she shouted. She was in her underwear, lying on the floor, arms outstretched and legs up against the couch. She tilted her head back and looked at me upside down. "Charlie, darling! Why are you standing on your head?

My confused feeling for her had been holding me back, and I had to clung to her out of my fear of being forced out on my own, and cut adrift.

Uma criança pode não saber como se alimentar, ou o que comer, mas ela conhece a fome.

She brings me things to eat and she fixes my bed and she says I was a very brave man to let them do things to my hed. She says she woud never let them do things to her branes for all the tea in china. I tolld her it wasnt for tea in china. It was to make me smart.

Até um homem de mente fraca quer ser como os outros homens. Uma criança pode não saber como se alimentar, ou o que comer, mas ela conhece a fome.

when Norma flowered in our garden I became a weed, allowed to exist only where I would not be seen, in corners and dark places.

Não sou apenas uma coisa, mas também uma maneira de ser – uma das muitas maneiras –, e saber os caminhos que percorri e os que me restam vai me ajudar a entender o que estou me tornando.

there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn." I

It is impossible to tell what proportion is memory and what exists here and now--so that a strange compound is formed of memory and reality; past and present; response to stimuli stored in my brain centers, an response to stimuli in this room. It's as if all the things I've learned have fused into a crystal universe spinning before me so that I can see al the facets of it reflected in gorgeous bursts of light...

And so it went. Most of them felt the way Joe and Frank and Gimpy did. It had been all right as long they could laugh at me and appear clever at my expense, but now they were feeling inferior to the moron. I began to see that by my astonishing growth I had made them shrink and emphasized their inadequacies. I had betrayed them, and they hated me for it.

I remember that she was always fluttering like a big, white bird—around my father, and he too heavy and tired to escape her pecking.

had reached a new level, and anger and suspicion were my first reactions to the world around me. Burt's

Thoughts of suicide to stop it all now while I am still in control and aware of the world around me. But then I think of Charlie waiting at the window. His life is not mine to throw away. I've just borrowed it for a while, and now I'm being asked to return it.

I was wandering around like a lost soul, and then I saw that I was lost.

I still hear her. But perhaps I had been released. Maybe the fear and nausea was no longer a sea to drown in, but only a pool of water reflecting the past alongside the now. Was I free?

Benim ?????m?n senin karanl???ndan daha iyi olduÄŸunu kim söyleyebilir.

Size ÅŸunu hipotez olarak sunuyorum: Sevgi alma ve sevgi verme yeteneÄŸinden yoksun olan zeka, zihinsel ve ahlaki çöküÅŸe, nevroza ve muhtemelen psikoza bile yol açar. Ve ben-merkezci bir amaca odaklanan ve insan iliÅŸkilerini d??layan bir beynin, sadece ÅŸiddete ve ac?ya neden olaca??n? da eklemek istiyorum.

Ama ben zekan?n tek ba??na hiçbir anlam ta??mad???n? öÄŸrendim. Burada, sizin üniversitenizde zeka, eÄŸitim ve bilgi büyük idoller haline gelmiÅŸ. Ama ÅŸimdi biliyorum ki, hepinizin atlad??? bir ÅŸey var: Sevgi ve ÅŸefkat eli deÄŸmeyen zeka ve eÄŸitim beÅŸ para etmez.

ÖÄŸrenmek tuhaf bir olay: Ne kadar derinlere gidersem, var olduÄŸunu bile bilmediÄŸim ÅŸeylerle kar??la??yorum. K?sa bir süre önce, her ÅŸeyi - dünyadaki tüm bilgileri - öÄŸrenebilirim gibi aptalca bir hisse kap?lm??t?m. Åžimdi ise, sadece onlar?n var olduÄŸunu bilebilmeyi ve bir nebzesini anlayabilmeyi ümit ediyorum.

I am not only a thing, but also a way of being-one of many ways- and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.