Alst Quotes

Back then, when everybody thought the world would last forever, nobody had time for anything.

Do any of us exist, after all, unless or until we're called to do so? Are we really alive if someone isn't dreaming us into existence? We're all of us one dimension removed, one silent plane away from someone else's reality, waiting to be conjured up. Who sends prayers your way? Who calls you in? Who's remembering you exist? Is it down to just you? How do you reach them, remind them to think of you even as you pull apart, fade and twist under the blackness of space, drifting beyond sound? Past the void's silence, the in-between's pieces of quiet, when no one will listen to you scream.

I figured the rest of the Van Alst house could crumble around the pointed Van Alst ears and Vera would only retreat to the library. I was starting to understand how she felt. I hated to leave the room and the collection.

I light a smoke and tell myself stories that I hope will keep me sane.

He was in the front room, asleep on a narrow oak settle. He slept on his back, as he suually did, hands crossed on his stomach, mouth slightly open. The alst rays of daylight from the window behind me limned his face like a metal mask; the silver tracks of dried tears glinted on golden skin, and the copper stubble of his beard gleamed dully.

You didna know?' he asked curiously. 'That we were coming here? No, of course not.' I felt mildly sick. The hill of Craigh na Dun was no more than a mile away: I could see the hump-backed shape of it through the last shreds of the morning mist. I swallowed hard. I ahd tried for nearly six months to reach this palce. Now that I was here at alst, I wanted to be anywhere else. The standing stones on the hilltop were invisible from below, but they seemed to emanate a subtle terror that reached out for me.