quotes that made me want to live
I am going through as many papers in my room as I can; stacks of used notebooks, materials from classes I've taken, photo contact sheets, piles of art, postcards, letters, photographs, magazine and newspaper clippings, posters. In the course of my sorting I came across various quotes I tacked up in Nick's dorm room my senior year of college. They were meant to . . . well, not to "cheer" exactly and "inspire" sounds corny. I guess, they were meant to remind the both of us that life was worth living.
From Mr. Warren Ellis:
Dance like you're stamping on a human face forever, love like you've been in a serious car crash that minced the front of your brain, stab like no one can arrest you, and live like there's no such thing as God.
"You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood...blood screaming inside you to work its will."
spike, buffy the vampire slayer, season III: lover's walk
There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by.
Annie Dillard
You attend the funeral, you bid the dead farewell. You grieve. Then you continue with your life.
And at times the fact of her absence will hit you like a blow to the chest, and you will weep. But this will happen less and less as time goes on. She is dead. You are alive. So live.
Neil Gaiman, "Brief Lives"
Be gentle with yourself . . .
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should . . .
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
The Desiderata
When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. 'It's all right' we whisper, 'I'm here, I love you.' and we lie: 'I'll never leave you.' For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad.
Neil Gaiman
BUFFY VOICEOVER: Dawn, listen to me. Listen.
I love you. I will *always* love you.
But this is the work that I have to do.
Tell Giles . . . tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I’m okay.
And give my love to my friends.
You have to take care of them now.
You have to take care of each other.
You have to be strong.
Dawn, the hardest thing in this world . . . is to live in it.
Be brave. Live.
For me.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6 (I can't believe I got that wrong, it's season 5) The Gift
Nate Sr.: You hang on to your pain like it means something. Like it's worth something. Well, let me tell you - it's not worth shit. Let it go! Infinite possibilities, and all he can do is whine.
David: Well, what am I supposed to do?
Nate Sr.: What do you think? You can do *anything*, you lucky bastard - you're alive! What's a little pain compared to that?
David: It can't be that simple.
Nate Sr.: What if it is?
6 Feet Under
You were my lifeline. I was stuck at home. You connected me to the world, and I'm still clutching at you, even though you're broken and I'm adrift . . . And the same pictures play over and over. And I'm in the back row, watching them . . . In the grubby, broken cinema of memory. I'll go back to the corners of the past, even the shadowy, sordid corners. Just because *you were there then. I'm trying to hang on. Hang on to something even though I know it's gone. Even though I know you aren't there anymore. You. The loved one. You're gone. Nothing will change that. All I can do is pack away all the things I remember, put them in a drawer, with all other useless souvenirs . . . And just carry on. You've got to carry on. We've all got to just carry on. That's how we survive. That's our purpose. Our purpose is to survive. Whatever that takes.
V for Vendetta
"In my experience, the happiest people are the ones who don't think too hard, who are not introspective, who cheerfully ignore problems and cling to unexamined beliefs....You have to be born one of those happy unthinking people to become one. The people who are attracted to English in the first place tend to be the introspective ones, full of doubts, unable to ignore problems, constantly questioning themselves and their place in the world. The odds are pretty good that it was too late for all of you long before you majored in English, that if you were the unthinkingly cheerful type you probably wouldn't be here. But I do think that literature has a way of helping those who need it. I don't know that it makes you happy, exactly, but it makes you appreciate things-it makes the sadness more meaningful, the joys richer if only by comparison, the laughs more knowing."
Wes Chapman, Illinois Wesleyan University
From Mr. Warren Ellis:
Dance like you're stamping on a human face forever, love like you've been in a serious car crash that minced the front of your brain, stab like no one can arrest you, and live like there's no such thing as God.
"You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood...blood screaming inside you to work its will."
spike, buffy the vampire slayer, season III: lover's walk
There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by.
Annie Dillard
You attend the funeral, you bid the dead farewell. You grieve. Then you continue with your life.
And at times the fact of her absence will hit you like a blow to the chest, and you will weep. But this will happen less and less as time goes on. She is dead. You are alive. So live.
Neil Gaiman, "Brief Lives"
Be gentle with yourself . . .
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should . . .
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
The Desiderata
When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. 'It's all right' we whisper, 'I'm here, I love you.' and we lie: 'I'll never leave you.' For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad.
Neil Gaiman
BUFFY VOICEOVER: Dawn, listen to me. Listen.
I love you. I will *always* love you.
But this is the work that I have to do.
Tell Giles . . . tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I’m okay.
And give my love to my friends.
You have to take care of them now.
You have to take care of each other.
You have to be strong.
Dawn, the hardest thing in this world . . . is to live in it.
Be brave. Live.
For me.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6 (I can't believe I got that wrong, it's season 5) The Gift
Nate Sr.: You hang on to your pain like it means something. Like it's worth something. Well, let me tell you - it's not worth shit. Let it go! Infinite possibilities, and all he can do is whine.
David: Well, what am I supposed to do?
Nate Sr.: What do you think? You can do *anything*, you lucky bastard - you're alive! What's a little pain compared to that?
David: It can't be that simple.
Nate Sr.: What if it is?
6 Feet Under
You were my lifeline. I was stuck at home. You connected me to the world, and I'm still clutching at you, even though you're broken and I'm adrift . . . And the same pictures play over and over. And I'm in the back row, watching them . . . In the grubby, broken cinema of memory. I'll go back to the corners of the past, even the shadowy, sordid corners. Just because *you were there then. I'm trying to hang on. Hang on to something even though I know it's gone. Even though I know you aren't there anymore. You. The loved one. You're gone. Nothing will change that. All I can do is pack away all the things I remember, put them in a drawer, with all other useless souvenirs . . . And just carry on. You've got to carry on. We've all got to just carry on. That's how we survive. That's our purpose. Our purpose is to survive. Whatever that takes.
V for Vendetta
"In my experience, the happiest people are the ones who don't think too hard, who are not introspective, who cheerfully ignore problems and cling to unexamined beliefs....You have to be born one of those happy unthinking people to become one. The people who are attracted to English in the first place tend to be the introspective ones, full of doubts, unable to ignore problems, constantly questioning themselves and their place in the world. The odds are pretty good that it was too late for all of you long before you majored in English, that if you were the unthinkingly cheerful type you probably wouldn't be here. But I do think that literature has a way of helping those who need it. I don't know that it makes you happy, exactly, but it makes you appreciate things-it makes the sadness more meaningful, the joys richer if only by comparison, the laughs more knowing."
Wes Chapman, Illinois Wesleyan University
