R.I.P., Seamus Heaney

History says, Don’t hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme.

Seamus Heaney, The Cure At Troy

Red Wind

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Ana's that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen.

Raymond Chandler, Red Wind

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Gloria said nothing, staring into the distance. Far down the shore on a point there were lights.

"That's Malibu," I said. "Where all the movie stars live."

"What are you going to do now?" she finally said.

"I don't know exactly. I thought I'd go see Mr Maxwell tomorrow. Maybe I could get him to do something. He certainly seemed interested."

"Always tomorrow," she said. "The big break is always tomorrow."

Horace McCoy, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

I'm Nobody

I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

Emily Dickinson

Zealot

There is now nothing inside the sanctuary. It is a vast, empty space that serves as a conduit for the presence of God, channeling his divine spirit from the heavens, flowing it out in concentric waves across the Temple's chambers, through the Court of Priests and the Court of Israelites, the Court of Women and the Court of Gentiles, over the Temple's porticoed walls down into the city of Jerusalem, across the Judean countryside to Samaria and Idumea, Peraea and Galilee, through the boundless empire of mighty Rome and on to the rest of the world, to all peoples and all nations, all of them -- Jew and gentile alike -- nourished and sustained by the spirit of the Lord of Creation, a spirit that has one sole source and no other: the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, tucked within the Temple, in the sacred city of Jerusalem.

Reza Asla, Zealot

Long Time, No See

It was you, but it was his knock, you see a knock can carry anyone's signature on a day like that. I could have sworn. You know what it is son -- memory is a stranger who comes to call less and less.

Aye.

And sometimes he's not welcome, if you know what I mean.

Dermot Healy, Long Time, No See

The Devil's Dictionary

RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Imperium

Sometimes it is foolish to articulate an ambition too early -- exposing it prematurely to the laughter and skepticism of the world can destroy it before it is even properly born. But sometimes the opposite occurs, and the very act of mentioning a thing makes it suddenly seem possible, even plausible. That was how it was that night.

Robert Harris, Imperium

The Son

"It ain't like our daddies grew up here, Pete. It ain't like people have lived here long. This is just the place they happened to stop."

"The fences got all of us," I said.

Phillipp Meyer, The Son

Personal Memoirs

My family is American, and has been for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral.

Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs (1885)