Merrit Malloy Quotes

That One Man (from The People Who Didn't Say Goodbye)
There is always that one man
who you can't avoid
that one face that becomes the only
representative of
Heaven.

When I die
Give what's left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give to them
What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.

Look for me
In the people I've known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live in your eyes
And not on your mind.

You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands
By letting
Bodies touch bodies
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.

Love doesn't die,
People do.
So, when all that's left of me
Is love,
Give me away

Remembering is the opposite of being here now; it's being there now.

What we might consider is how we are good rather than how good we are.

She thought men were saviors ...
... And she looked for more in them than what they were ...
Only to rescue herself from those she wished would rescue her ...
And isn't that the most tragic lie ...
The lie where we tell what we wished were true and believe it ... ?
She had an artificial memory, a prosthesis to a past that never was ...
She was like a party that no one ever went to ...
Like a cure ... without a disease ...
And isn't that the greatest fear of all ... to be ready with the answers
to questions that no one asks anymore?

I move impatiently
towards a lover
I haven't met

Letting people be okay without us is how we get to be okay without them.

The Long Way Home
Why is it when people feel they are losing each other they always leave each other?
Why do people walk away from their house when all they have to do to get home is turn around?

There are some people
who would rather be right than happy,
as though making a point
was more fun than having a good time
These are the people
who will risk their lives to get the last laugh
even when it isn't funny

There are people who cannot say good-bye
They are born this way/this is how they die
They are the keepers of promises/what moves them does not wear out
Their loyalty will tear apart your clocks

These are the people who can hear the music in songs
They are the Vow carriers
The grandmothers who always leave the porchlight on
No one is lost to the one who sees

These are the women widowed by men they never married
These are the girls who wait even when you don't come
These are the mothers of orphans/They can turn a fake into an original
They will hear the prayer in your self-contempt

As distance is measured/people do not end
It is one of those stories that cannot be written down except across a lifetime of open doors
There is a holding on beyond the letting go
There is a reunion in everybody's chest
This is how we come to make a family from strangers
This is how we light candles

These are people who will remember you when you meet them
These are the people you can always call at night
They are humans turned angels by your asking
With each separation they go to seed again.

These are the men who carried you on their shoulders
This is the one your are lonely for
the one who begins and ends your hunger
This is the man who said "Always"

There is something that does not wear out
It is the third part of any two people

And I choose to be alone
Rather than wrapped in arms I could never need.

Whatever it means,
it matters,
and most of it is true
I loved every one of them
and all of them ... were you

What a gigantic step it is not to move.

We grow to deserve what we need to believe ...
Since I've known you
I've been careful not to pray out loud
Wishes have a way of coming true when you least expect ...

Compromise is simply changing the question to fit the answer.

Don't ever tell a story like it wasn't about you.

What we are is our parents' children; what we become is our children's parents.

PRIVATE PRACTICES

We may all
get there...we may even
arrive at the
same time...but
we all
come
alone

One of the first things we have to let go of is not being able to let go of anybody.

Why is it that we always remember that people forget; but we always forget that they remember?I used to remember ... but I forgot!