9 Quotes by Mark Salzman


  • Author Mark Salzman
  • Quote

    It's a mean story, Helen fumed. An absentee father who demands that his children put him at the center of their lives and beg for his return. Sister Priscilla didn't think it was mean, apparently. She was so in love with God that she had married him, even though she would not see his face, hear his voice, or feel his embrace for as long as she lived. One of us, Helen, thought is flying blind.

  • Tags
  • Share


  • Author Mark Salzman
  • Quote

    She knew that it was better to have a dream and pay a price for it than to be lukewarm. - regarding St. Teresa of Avila

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Mark Salzman
  • Quote

    That's not gon fu." We stared at each other for a long time, then he raised on eybrow. "I could fix it, if you wanted." I must have nodded, because then he asked me if I could chi ku, eat bitter, the Chinese expression meaning to endure suffering. Lying, I said yes. Then he asked me if I was afraid of pain. Lying again, I said no. "You want?" he asked. "I want," I said, and became his student.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Mark Salzman
  • Quote

    The nurse pointed out that identical twins were already clones in a sense, and Mother Emmanuel suggested that the soul to worry about belonged to the person who would have himself cloned at great expense when so many unwanted children were going hungry.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Mark Salzman
  • Quote

    In the fire of his embrace, all that was her ceased to exist. Only what was God remained. I am. The cloisterbell, the voice of Christ. He spoke again: I am. She tried to obey but was frozen in beauty, like a fly trapped in amber. She could not move. Nothing exists apart from me. Self had been an illusion, a dream. God dreaming.

  • Share

  • Author Mark Salzman
  • Quote

    Am I really a person who lives by faith? God can surely tell the difference between someone who walks in darkness and someone who walks with her eyes shut. Which am I?

  • Share

  • Author Mark Salzman
  • Quote

    This book,” he began, “is very, very unsuitable.” He paused, then went on. “In fact, in my whole life, I have never read or even imagined something so unsuitable.” Here he stopped, still staring at me. He held the book up slightly and pointed at it with his chin. “May I keep it?

  • Share