96 Quotes by Darin Strauss

I’ve come to see our central nervous system as a kind of vintage switchboard, all thick foam wires and old-fashioned plugs. The circuitry isn’t properly equipped; after a surplus of emotional information the system overloads, the circuit breaks, the board runs dark. That’s what shock is.

I’d violated the primary rule of junior and senior high – don’t get people talking about you too much. This was wearing the brightest shirt on the playground. This was Mom giving you a kiss in the lobby.

Diminish the influence of fate.

Sin in the Second City is a masterful history lesson, a harrowing biography, and – best of all – a superfun read. The Everleigh story closely follows the turns of American history like a little sister. I can’t recommend this book loudly enough.

His nervous eyes watched me above his words, apologizing for the ways the excuses weren’t right even as he couldn’t stop presenting them.

What can one do with levels of gloom and guilt, fear and disbelief, of bewilderment above one’s capacity to register?

Regret doesn’t budge things; it seems crazy that the force of all that human want can’t amend a moment, can’t even stir a pebble.

Love wasn’t a thing you fell in, but rose to. It was what stopped you from falling.

And he sought, with quick vanity, the reflection in a big mirror opposite him. Just as fast he turned away. He appeared to have reached that situation of health where vanity meant you didn’t risk your face in the mirror.