Quotes from Garth Stein

Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature. And while I occasionally step over the line and into the world of the melodramatic, it is what I must do in order to communicate clearly and effectively. In order to make my point understood without question.

Stories continue in all directions to include even the retelling of the stories themselves, as legend is informed by interpretation, and interpretation is informed by time.

Your car goes where your eyes go. Simply another way of saying that which you manifest is before you.

And it is clear to Evan, now: the difference between what is and what has been done; the present and the past. He sees that what he does and who he is isn't based on the past unless he wants it to be... No. That is the past, which has been seen differently through many different eyes and has become hazy and unclear, like a pond when stirred with a stick. Only the present moment is clear and free from prejudice.

Terriers are problem solvers. They'll do what you tell them, but only if it happens to be in line with what they wanted to do anyway.

Art of Racing in the Rain--Do not mistake confidence and self-awareness for egotism.

This is just a crisis. A flash! A single match struck against the implacable darkness of time! You are the one who taught me never to give up. You taught me that new possibilities emerge for those who are prepared, for those who are ready. You have to believe!

Man's closest relative is not the chimpanzee, as the TV people believe, but is, in fact, the dog. "Enzo" I admire the female sex. The life makers. It must be amazing to have a body that can carry an entire creature inside. "Enzo

that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignoranve, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves

This is what I would like. To play in those fields for a little longer. To spend a little more time being me before I become someone else. This is what I would like.

But I wondered why they had waited for Eve's illness to make themselves available for companionship.

Perhaps that's what life is about—the search for such a connection. The search for magic. The search for the inexplicable. Not in order to explain it, or contain it. Simply in order to feel it. Because in that recognition of the sublime, we see for a moment the entire universe in the palm of our hand. And in that moment, we touch the face of God.

the race is long—to finish first, first you must finish.

The human lanuage, as precise as it is with its thousands of words, can still be so wonderfully vague.

I believe that people were not so allergic to their environment until they began polluting themselves and their world with so many drugs and toxins.

struck by the pain of the ice and the rage of the water below that was forced to make room for the huge piece of frozen time, the glacier, trapped in a solid state for centuries, melting into the ocean and becoming one with its future. She feels small and insignificant in the face of such a display of nature.

You're scaring the dog," Trish pointed out. She rarely called me by name. They do that in prisoner of war camps, I've heard. Depersonalization.

We were both satellites orbiting Denny's sun, struggling for gravitational supremacy. Of course, she had the advantage of her tongue and her thumbs, and when I watched her kiss and fondle him sometimes she would glance at me and wink as if to gloat: Look at my thumbs! See what they can do!

Yes: the race is long-to finish first, first you must finish. ~p206

This is what I love to do: I love to run through a field of wet grass that has not been mowed recently, I love to run, keeping my snout low to the ground so the grass and the sparkles of water cover my face. I imagine myself as a vacuum cleaner, sucking in all the smells. all the life, a spear of summer grass. It reminds me of my childhood, back on the farm in Spangle, where there was no rain but there was grass, there were fields, and I ran. ~ p208

My intent, here, is to tell our story in a dramatically truthful way. While the facts may be less than accurate, please understand that the emotion is true. The intent is true. And, dramatically speaking, intention is everything.

I was upset, sad, angry - something! I needed to do something! I needed to feel myself, understand myself and this horrible world we are all trapped in, where bugs and tumors and viruses worm their way into our brains and lay their putrid eggs that hatch and eat us alive from the inside out.

I have made mistakes and I have hurt people, I do not deny that fact. But I have corrected those mistakes vigorously once I understood the error of my ways.

I realized, then, that being an adult was just about bullshitting everyone around you. Just do things until someone stops you from doing those things, and then say, "Oh, that isn't allowed?