116 Quotes by Steve Toltz

I groaned. Man and his codes! Even in a lawless inferno, man has to give himself some honor, he’s so desperate to separate himself from the beasts.

It seems to me you should be able to look at the people in your life and say “I owe you my survival” and “You owe me your survival,” and if you can’t say that, then what the hell are you doing with them?

We’re always sick and we just don’t know it. What we mean by health is only when our constant physical deterioration is undetectable.

Why groups never follow the sweet, gentle child is obvious, but I wish it would happen just once.

After all, memory may be the only thing on earth we can truly manipulate to serve us, so we don’t have to look back at ourselves in the receding past and think, What an arsehole!

She always had the outward appearance of indifference, which I suspect is the real secret to longevity. That or a genuine desire to die.

It seems that in our society Christianity has made permanent inroads in the eye-for-an-eye department but has made little progress on the practical application of forgiveness.

I didn’t think anyone who had to demand respect ever got it.

Negotiating with memories isn’t easy: how to choose between those panting to be told, those still ripening, those already shriveling, and those destined to be mangled by language and come out pulverized?