Halifax Men's Reading Group

Some Favourite Quotes

 

"Doyler reached inside his shirt and tugged on the string that held his medal. Between thumbs and fingers he twisted the tin till it split in two. Jim saw the proffered half of St. Joseph.

'It's my pledge to you. We'll have our Easter swim, my hand and heart on that. We'll make them rocks together, Jim. Are you straight so?'
'I'm straight as a rush,' Jim said. He sniffed. 'I am too.'
'Old pal o' me heart,' said Doyler.
'Come what may, said Jim.
'Come what may.' Doyler grinned. 'Come Easter sure. 1916.'"

~At Swim Two Boys, by Jamie O'Neill

 

 


"I was thinking about the 'Morning Party' going on right then in Fire Island. Thinking about the parade of men who'd worked out for this day, and even shaved their chests for the occasion. Thinking how the Morning Party must also be the Mourning Party inasmuch as while there were thousands of men dancing, there were also, hovering above them, the thousands of souls of the newly dead who had danced on that beach just a year or two before. Thinking, as I had been vaguely all summer, about falling in love again."

~Nightswimmer by Joseph Olshan

 

 

"I had been in love with him for over a year, even though I was dating girls and was pretty sure I wasn't gay."

~George Singer

 

 

"The way Bucky sang it, the city lights were SPAHHHHHHKLING, just like Liza. He sang Be The-ya, instead of Be There, just like Liza. When he didn't win first place, he burst into tears and ran off stage. Even then, he was sort of just like Liza."

~George Singer

 

 

"All I know is that suddenly, last summer, he wasn't young anymore, and we went to Cabeza de Lobo, and he suddenly switched from the evenings to the beach..."

-Suddenly Last Summer, by Tennessee Williams

 

 

"He pulled his coat tight around his waist and stood up. At home, he knew, there was cake. There was always cake. There were books, too. It was cold outside, so it would be warm inside. Home would sustain him for a single night, and by the time the panic set in the next morning, he'd be on his way to work. Survival was possible."

-The Lost Language of Cranes, by David Leavitt

 

 

"After the terrible, weak blank of narcotic sleep, Hilary's warm domesticity and unquestioning affection had seemed unutterably lovely. That was the nearest Rufus had come to falling in love."

-Kansas in August, by Patrick Gale

 

 

"The Mudang arrives in the morning, a laughing woman with a man's stride, a man's way of leaning back from her hips. Who took your ghost, she says to me...I don't know, I say. We find it, she says."

-Edinburgh: A Novel, by Alexander Chee

 

 

"I might also be waiting to join Aunt Jemima. Joining Aunt Jemima was the euphemism my best friend Pete Williams had coined for flipping out. It translates easily enough: Aunt Jemima, pancakes, flipping."

-P.S. Your Cat Is Dead, by James Kirkwood

 

 

Travis: I never said I like boys!
Gordo: Ever beat off to Penthouse?Travis: No.
Gordo: Ever collect baseball cards?Travis: No.
Gordo: How old is Barbra Streisand?
Travis: 36. Three weeks ago.
Gordo: What do you need -- a fucking blueprint?

-Almost Like Being in Love, by Steve Kluger

 

 

"Summer help wanted? In an Ethel Merman store? For a brief but electric moment, I understood the whole Buddhist concept of karma."

-Almost Like Being in Love, by Steve Kluger