The Curiosity
by Stephen P. Kiernan
(William Morrow, 2013)
There is no way to bring back what has been lost, but maybe telling a tale of beauty is a form of mourning.
Page 6
When you are that far ahead of anything anyone has done before, the idea of relevant experience is laughable.
Page 9.
Urban single life in your thirties resembled a seventh-grade dance: wringing your hands hoping the good ones will ask you, saying yes to the others because it beats being a wallflower.
Page 10.
The temperature felt malevolent, like creepy fog in a horror movie.
Page 20.
Once the discovery occurs, science is mostly theater.
Page 26.
Only a monster can see a person weep and not take action.
Page 108.
Who leaves this world having known too much love? Who departs this life having received an excess of kindness?
Page 181.
Desire can be its own reward.
Page 191.
If it wasn’t for deadlines, nothing important would ever get done.
Page 193.
Coarseness lacks dignity.
Page 214.
What is obscenity, really, but a person’s way of showing he lacks distinction?
Page 339.
One sign of a stupid man is when he’s too free with his insults.
Page 341.
The more fervently your enemies hate you, the more they confirm your importance.
Page 342.
Firing is so insignificant, it should come wrapped in a bow.
Page 353.
When a man is dying, the world is loud, insistent, and vivid. Each thing, however modest, becomes exaggerated, because it is the last of its kind.
Page 385.
It is better to live generously than to regret having lived with restraint.
Page 387.
Sorrow is the price we pay for joy.
Page 387.
I must honor experience by remembering.
Page 388.
What are habits but a steady way of either honoring or diminishing ourselves?
Page 388.
There are many ways of taking a man inside yourself and filling both of you with pleasure. There are many ways of making love.
Page 389.
What is love but the desire to know another person as thoroughly and deeply as possible?
Page 390.
Anything is permissible if it makes a great story.
Page 397.
What is life but a little row in a small boat, every moment leaving what we know, every stroke unable to see where we are headed?
Page 417.
When love comes into hour life, it calls upon your whole being to be worthy. If you rise to that challenge, it will plant roots and you will blossom.
Page 427.
We must let our deeds be our ambassadors. Our challenge is to live with all the sincerity that is in our hearts, and hope that those who doubt will come to see the truth.
Page 431.