23 Quotes by Bill Hayes

Every car on every train on every line holds a surprise, a random sampling of humanity brought together in a confined space for a minute or two – a living Rubik’s Cube.

In the middle of the night: “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could dream together?” O whispers.

I’ve suddenly realized what you mean to me: You create the need which you fill, the hunger you sate.

I’ve come to believe that a good cry is like a car wash for the soul.

One can be alive but half-asleep or half-noticing as the years fly, no matter how fully oxygenated the blood and brain or how steadily the heart beats. Fortunately, this is a reversible condition. One can learn to be alert to the extraordinary and press pause – to memorize moments of the everyday.

I don’t so much fear death as I do wasting life.” Oliver Sacks.

I cannot take a subway without marveling at the lottery logic that brings together a random sampling of humanity for one minute or two, testing us for kindness and compatibility. Is that not what civility is?

But taking wrong trains, encountering unexpected delays, and suffering occasional mechanical breakdowns are inevitable to any journey really worth taking. One learns to get oneself turned around and headed the right way.

O: ‘The most we can do is to write – intelligently, creatively, critically, evocatively – about what it is like living in the world at this time.