Ethan Canin Quotes

Tycho Brahe clung to a lousy idea, Hans. That's all it was. People like us - you must know this by now - we can't do that. We know damn well when we're right. We know a long time before anyone else even suspects it." He cleared his throat. "Or when we're wrong. That's how we live. That's how we die. ~ Ethan Canin

You can tell within a sentence if something is fiction or non-fiction. You can tell in the artifice of the language or the care of the construction the difference between art and life. ~ Ethan Canin

Writing a book is like an unknown abyss, every time. Every book is different. Contrary to what unpublished writers think, it's horrible to have a book out. ~ Ethan Canin

Does one grow wise in increments? By fractioning a life and then summing it? By stacking sand? An infant, in his first sleepiness, must let go of the world; a man must learn to die. What comes between are the grains of sand. Ambition. Loss. Envy. Desire. Hatred. Love. Tenderness. Joy. Shame. Loneliness. Ecstasy. Ache. Surrender. Live long enough and you will solve them all. ~ Ethan Canin

I think fiction is about small ambition, small failed ambition. ~ Ethan Canin

My father peed like a horse. His urine lowed in one great sweeping dream that started suddenly and stopped just as suddenly, a single, winking arc of shimmering clarity that endured for a prodigious interval and then disappeared in an instant, as though the outflow were a solid object - and arch of glittering ice or a thick band of silver - and not (as it actually approximated) a parabolic, dynamically averaged graph of the interesting functions of gravity, air resistance, and initial velocity on a non-viscous fluid, produced and exhibited by a man who'd just consumed more than a gallon of midwestern beer. The flow was as clear as water. When it struck the edge of the gravel shoulder, the sound was like a bed-sheet being ripped. Beneath this high reverberation, he let out a protracted appreciative whistle that culminated in a tunneled gasp, his lips flapping at the close like a trumpeters. In the tiny topsoil, a gap appeared, a wisp entirely unashamed. Bernie bumped about in the cargo bay. My father moved up close to peer through the windshield, zipping his trousers and smiling through the glass at my mother. I realized that the yellow that should have been in his urine was unmistakable now in his eyes.

'Thank goodness,' my mother said when the car door closed again. 'I was getting a little bored in here. ~ Ethan Canin

Happy isn't even a real idea," he said. "It's just like love. A reasonably skeptical person doesn't even know what it means. ~ Ethan Canin

You're never so alive as after you thought you were going to die. ~ Ethan Canin

People punch up," he said. "They punch the ones who are better than them. Nobody likes a kid who does something well. That ~ Ethan Canin

He was going to think about her and think about her until she disappeared. ~ Ethan Canin

If someone doesn't like your fiction, it's really insulting. ~ Ethan Canin

Don't write about a character. Become that character, and then write your story. ~ Ethan Canin

I work with wood a lot. I like building. I think of building. I would love to buy land on some water somewhere and build a house. That'd be nice. ~ Ethan Canin

As soon as we conform anything to language, we've changed it. Use a word and you've altered the world. The poets know this. It's what they try so hard to avoid. ~ Ethan Canin

[G]enius is a true degenerative psychosis belonging to the group of moral insanity . . . ~ Cesare Lombroso

In people like us, the craving is as strong as the craving for food or water, the yearning for touch or light or love. I was looking for something--a diversion, an occupation, an unwavering force--that would elevate me, that would lift me out of the melancholy dissection of my own interior geography that otherwise would have consumed me pitilessly, as it had my father. I wanted to fly above myself-- if only for a few hours--and look down in tranquility upon my life. ~ Ethan Canin

The forgotten of this country have a consistent history of turning on their champions, and I suppose the way working men and women have forsaken the very politicians who could help them most speaks of the primacy of emotion in politics. Perhaps the great decline of FDR's party, which was beginning in Henry Bonwiller's time, didn't come about because Democrats favored a logical argument over a moral one, but simply because they clung to the idea that either one mattered at all. ~ Ethan Canin

There are writers who draw immediate attention to the fact that it's fiction. And I like some of that, but it doesn't really have the power ... ~ Ethan Canin

The connectors have gained the upper hand. We isolationists languish in the caves. Take ~ Ethan Canin

Oh, take the liberty! That's what I would have done if Ethan and Mattie had run off together and left me on this forsaken farm. I would have packed my satchel and my portmanteau and climbed aboard a train bound West, and gazed out the window at what there was to see across this vast country. City spires in the midst of wheatfields, and miles of chards with fruit on the bough, and high bridges over broad rivers, and mountains of clouds the likes of which I'd never seen, and birds of a kind I'd never seen before. And there'd be a city where I'd stay, and there'd be an old couple in a fine house of many rooms, and I'd tend them and see
they kept neat, and on my days off I'd wind my black hair in a fashionable way with tortoiseshell combs, and hold my head high, and go out to see what that city had to offer. ~ Gina Berriault

Romeo has poisoned himself.
Idiot. ~ Leisa Rayven

That will be fine," Ethan muttered. "Now breathe through the pain." "Come over here," she grunted. "I'll show you how to breathe through my fist. ~ Robyn Peterman

And hey," Gabe added, "I don't even need the second bedroom, so we could set that up as a guest room, then you and Wade can stay when you visit."
"You might want a roommate or something."
"For what ... you won't let me pay you any rent, so it's not like I need the financial assistance."
"Well a boyfriend maybe?"
"And he'd be sleeping in the second bedroom because?"
"When he's mad 'cause you won't put out, for one."
Gabe tried to shove me off him. "Don't be mean - like I wouldn't want to have sex with my boyfriend."
"I'm just teasing Sally Sensitive, sheesh."
"I do actually like having sex you know." Gabe frowned.
I gasped, placing a hand on my chest. "Lordy mercy, my little Gabe's all growed up." Gabe laughed at me. "Finally ready to stuff his Italian sausage where the sun doesn't shine! ~ Ethan Day

See what I mean," I raised my hand into the air as if offering proof. "He's pissed and all he can think about are assholes. It's like two prizes in one."
"You're sick."
"As in rad?" I asked. "Like ... you're totally sick, dude."
"As in demented," Gabe said.I scoffed, watching as he opened the gate on the SUV. "Everyone's a critic. ~ Ethan Day

Almost distressed, Ethan unzipped Noah's pants and dragged them down. Noah kicked them away to the corner of the room. Now, Noah would soon be naked before his eyes, with his exposed tool, which he had been hiding for such a long time. With slow hands, Ethan pressed his palm over Noah's dick, over his boxers. He pressed his hands over it, and his dick peeked out through his fingers above the waistband. ~ Pierce Smith

It's not an exaggeration to say that they saved my life. Ray Quinn, then Cam and Ethan and Phil. They turned their world around for me, and because of it, turned mine around with it. Anna and Grace and Sybill, Aubrey too. They made a home for me, and nothing that happened before matters nearly as much as everything that came after. ~ Nora Roberts

As for futuristic costumes, I loved doing 'Gattaca' because I'm a minimalist at heart, and it's a very minimal film. Plus, with Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke and Jude Law, how could you go wrong? ~ Colleen Atwood

We are not defined by our lack of fear - Dad had said, smiling as Ethan let our four-year-old brother tackle him - but rather by what we choose to do when facing the nightmare. ~ Courtney Alameda

Embracing you against the chest,
Pressing dicks in each other,
Sucking your pinkish lips
Titillating balls with love
Kissing your body with my dick
Pressing against the tightest hole of your ass
Making you suck my dick with utmost pleasure
Inebriating in youthfulness
Soaking in desire of sex
Sucking dick in the fun
Oh! My Ethan, come,
Satisfy the thirst of my masculinity
Make every evening flavorsome and young nights colorful ~ Delicious David

The destroyer is...'" Ethan wondered at the next word, expecting 'horrific, 'mad', or even 'a bitch'... Not forgetting that she did try to kill him, of course.
"Glorious," he concluded to Ethan's surprise. ~ Louise G. White

He clearly wasn't dissuaded, and stroked my jawline with his thumb. You can run. You can keep running to the ends of the earth. But I won't be far behind you. ~ Chloe Neill

He rolled his eyes. " What Claire?"Claire snickered. " Corned-beef again?"Henry narrowed his eyes at her. " I like corned-beef, leave me alone."Claire laughed as he took a big bite of his sandwich while glaring at her. Ethan giggled as he watched the two of them. " What's so funny?" Henry asked Ethan around a mouthful of food, making him giggle some more. " Ew, Henry, that's gross," Claire groaned. Then Henry stopped her heart by winking at her. He freaking winked at her! Who the hell is this guy?! Claire gaped at him, trying to figure out who this person was. Henry rolled his green eyes at her. " What now?" he asked after swallowing his food. " Who are you and what have you done with Henry Beck?" Claire demanded. Henry gave her a bored look, but that couldn't hide the slight blush on his cheeks. " Whatever. ~ Andria Large

She shook the voices out of her head, but the words left a shadow, a phantom image that never entirely disappeared. ~ Kami Garcia

It's the uncertainty of being accepted that creates the drama in our lives. ~ Elizabeth Eulberg

Why do you have a blanket in your car?"
"In case I need it."
"Have you ever had sex on it?" I asked, staring at the soft plush material with narrowing eyes.
Ethan laughed, "Of course I have."
"Oh, I said, holding the material further away.
"It's my sex blanket. Whenever I'm int he mood, I just lay it on the ground, take off my clothes, and the ladies line up. ~ M.K. Schiller

Some things are private, Ethan. Even for grown-ups. ~ Kami Garcia

Ethan chuckled. "It hasn't escaped my attention, Sentinel, that you cringe every time I mention our future." "I don't cringe. I only cringe when you pretend-propose." He had a penchant for going down on bended knee - and straightening a hem or helping me with a shoe. "Nobody finds that amusing." "I find it excessively amusing. You do realize, don't you, that the proposal won't always be fake? ~ Chloe Neill

When I first started this, I was just trying to survive. But now... I feel like I know Sutton, Ethan. I know it sounds weird, but I feel like she's here sometimes, still with me, cheering me on. I love her, and I can't let her down. She deserves justice." She shook her head again. "I'm either going to solve this thing, or I'm going to die trying."
I felt my whole being fall very still. No one had ever made a promise like that for me, risked death for me. For once I was glad that Emma couldn't hear my thoughts. I wasn't sure I could find the words to tell her how grateful I was. ~ Sara Shepard

My introduction to Woody Allen and to Ethan Coen was at the same time. On Broadway, I starred in a play called 'Relatively Speaking,' which was three one-act comedies, one of which was written by Ethan and one of which was by Woody. ~ Max Casella

And what do you have planned for your soiree?" Ethan asked. "I'm guessing it won't involve tea sipping and heavy reading."

I pretended to adjust invisible glasses. "Well, we will be reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica aloud and watching Neil deGrasse Tyson videos on the YouTubes. We might also make time for macramé. ~ Chloe Neill

I wasn't sure why I wanted to spare Ethan. I guess we'd had enough fighting for one day, and in truth I felt sorry for the kid. He would be in enough trouble when he reported back to Kronos. ~ Rick Riordan

One of the things that's really lousy about making movies is that you have such little interaction with your audience. ~ Ethan Hawke

When I'm playing with circular saws, I'm offline (though often listening to podcasts) and when I sit in the cabin to read or write, it's wonderful to be offline for a few hours at a time. ~ Ethan Zuckerman

Then there are actors my age like Ethan Hawke, he's in 'Moby Dick,' I love his work. I've been lucky. Alfred Molina, he has real class. ~ Billy Boyd

Stand like you deserve to be here ~ Ethan Hawke

Do you know the best way to get your body heat back?" Ethan asked her as he looked her in the eyes and stroked her glossy brown hair. "The way to warm up is to lie next to another person. Naked. ~ Amanda Bretz

The only thing I can point to of why I survived is I have a family that loves me and never wanted any money from me. ~ Ethan Hawke

May I be excused, or would you like my assistance toweling off?" Ethan asked. "My grandmother is expecting me, and she hates when I'm late, although I'm willing to risk the wrath if you'd like to continue this conversation. ~ Barbra Annino

It was Halloween eve,
And I was yearning alone waiting for my soul mate Ethan,
He was expected by now for the celebrations in our bedroom,
We planned for this, many months back, and now I was getting restless,
My dick was erect and making a pole in my boxer - tough to handle 9 inches long of yearning all alone. ~ Delicious David

What did Ethan care? _He_ had no trouble navigating. This was because he'd lived all his life in one house, was Macon's theory; while a person who'd been moved around a great deal never acquired a fixed point of reference but wandered forever in a fog - adrift upon the planet, helpless, praying that just by luck he might stumble across his destination. ~ Anne Tyler

The biggest problem in my life is trying to be the kind of man that I want to be, the father that I want to be, and how to process the failure of my marriage. ~ Ethan Hawke

It is the fact that time is passing that creates its preciousness. ~ Ethan Hawke

If you covet fame, if you covet all the superficial accolades, you're gonna be miserable 'cause you're never going to get enough praise. If you covet contributing something substantive to movies, music, literature, then you won't be unhappy. ~ Ethan Hawke

I'd be perfectly happy never to have to answer anything again about how I work with Ethan, or whether we have arguments, or ... you know what I mean? I've been answering those questions for 20 years. I suppose it's interesting to people. ~ Joel Coen