Quotes from Joe Hill

Well. That's helpful. We'll put an APB out on the Gingerbread Man. I'm not hopeful it'll do us much good, though. Word on the street is you can't catch him.

Aren't you going to tell me I'm not so bad? she asked. Mmm-no. I was thinking how every man loves a hot girl with a history of making mistakes. Because it's always possible she'll make one with you.

I didn't know the inner me was hungry," I said to Art. "That's because it already starved to death.

The best way to get even with anyone is to put them in the rearview mirror on your way to something better.

Was there any human urge more pitiful-or more intense- than wanting another chance at something?

The best way to get even with anyone is to put them in the rearview mirror on your way to something better.

You think you know someone. But mostly you just know what you want to know.

She breathed deeply of the scent of decaying fiction, disintegrating history, and forgotten verse, and she observed for the first time that a room full of books smelled like dessert: a sweet snack made of figs, vanilla, glue, and cleverness.

Was there any human urge more pitiful-or more intense- than wanting another chance at something?

Maybe all the schemes of the devil were nothing compared to what man could think up.

I guess Satan was the first superhero [...] In his first adventure, he took the form of a snake to free two prisoners being held naked in a Third World jungle prison by an all-powerful megalomaniac. At the same time, he broadened their diet and introduced them to their own sexuality.

Fantasy was always only a reality waiting to be switched on.

Taking a thing apart is always faster than putting something together. This is true of everything except marriage.

It bewildered Ig, the idea that a person could not be interested in music. It was like not being interested in happiness.

Horror was rooted in sympathy . . . in understanding what it would be like to suffer the worst.

I want you to remember what was good in me, not what was most awful. The people you love should be allowed to keep their worst to themselves.

There's something horribly unfair about dying in the middle of a good story, before you have a chance to see how it all comes out. Of course, I suppose everyone ALWAYS dies in the middle of a good story, in a sense. Your own story. Or the story of your grandchildren. Death is a raw deal for narrative junkies.

He paused, twisting his goatee, considering the law in Deuteronomy that forbade clothes with mixed fibers. A problematic bit of Scripture. A matter that required thought. Only the devil wants man to have a wide range of lightweight and comfortable styles to choose from, he murmured at last, trying out a new proverb. Although there may be no forgiveness for polyester. On this one matter, Satan and the Lord are in agreement.

When you think about it, most of the good ideas came along to make sin a whole lot easier.

I felt like it needed some color down there, so I painted the walls with the motherfucker.

I mean, when the world comes for your children, with the knives out, it's your job to stand in the way.

All the world is made of music. We are all strings on a lyre. We resonate. We sing together.

I see God now as an unimaginative writer of popular fictions, someone who builds stories around sadistic and graceless plots, narratives that exist only to express His terror of a woman's power to choose who and how to love, to redefine love as she sees fit, not as God thinks it ought to be. The author is unworthy of His own characters.

Don't ever have children, Tyler, unless you're ready to be afraid everyday for the rest of your life.