Brian Andreas Quotes

I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand & the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep & there are no words for that.

He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time.

She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short.

I was waiting for the longest time, she said. I thought you forgot. It is hard to forget, I said, when there is such an empty space when you are gone.

Anyone can slay a dragon ...but try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That's what takes a real hero.

Wanting him to come back before anyone notices part of the world has not moved since he left.

You're the strangest person I ever met, she said & I said you too & we decided we'd know each other a long time.

I once had a garden filled with flowers that grew only on dark thoughts but they need constant attention & one day I decided I had better things to do.

I saw them standing there pretending to be just friends, when all the time in the world could not pry them apart.

She left pieces of her life behind her everywhere she went. It's easier to feel the sunlight without them, she said.

You may not remember the time you let me go first. Or the time you dropped back to tell me it wasn't that far to go. Or the time you waited at the crossroads for me to catch up. You may not remember any of those, but I do and this is what I have to say to you: Today, no matter what it takes, we ride home together.

Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life.

Most people don't know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don't get too comfortable & fall asleep & miss your life.

Everything changed the day she figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in her life.

I don't really like coffee, she said, but I don't really like it when my head hits my desk when I fall asleep either.

We lay there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I'd never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own.

I sometimes wake in the early morning & listen to the soft breathing of my child & I think to myself, this is one thing I will never regret & I carry that quiet with me all day long.

If you're right & I'm not, I'm going to be hell to live with, she said. So, you better think about that next time you want to be right.

I've always liked the time before dawn because there's no one around to remind me who I'm supposed to be so it's easier to remember who I am.

Making Room: When I first met him, I knew in a moment I would have to spend the next few days re-arranging my mind so there'd be room for him to stay.

I wish you could have been there for the sun & the rain & the long, hard hills. For the sound of a thousand conversations scattered along the road. For the people laughing & crying & remembering at the end. But, mainly, I wish you could have been there.

They came to sit & dangle their feet off the edge of the world & after awhile they forgot everything but the good & true things they would do someday.

I held her close for only a short time, but after she was gone, I'd see her smile on the face of a perfect stranger and I knew she would be there with me all the rest of my days.

I'm not sure if there's one right place I'm supposed to be, he said, but I know a couple of wrong places I'd give a second try in a heartbeat.

We sat in the car & the night dropped down until the only sounds were the crickets & the dance of our voices & for a moment the world became small enough to roll back & forth between us.

There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it is enough to be taken care of by my self.

There was a single blue line of crayon drawn across every wall in the house. What does it mean? I asked. A pirate needs the sight of the sea, he said and then he pulled his eye patch down and turned and sailed away.

Don't you hear it? She asked & I shook my head no & then she started to dance & suddenly there was music everywhere & it went on for a very long time & when I finally found words all I could say was thank you.

In the end, I think that I will like that we were sitting on the bed, talking & wondering where the time had gone.

There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise.

If you hold on to the handle, she said, it's easier to maintain the illusion of control. But it's more fun if you just let the wind carry you.

Are you a princess? I said & she said I'm much more than a princess, but you don't have a name for it yet here on earth.

There are your fog people & your sun people, he said. I said I wasn't sure which kind I was. He nodded. Fog'll do that to you, he said.

if there is any secret to this life i live, this is it: the sound of what cannot be seen sings within everything that can. and there is nothing more to it than that.

A few said they'd be horses. Most said they'd be some sort of cat. My friend said she'd like to come back as a porcupine. I don't like crowds, she said.

Is willing to accept that she creates her own reality except for some of the parts where she can't help but wonder what the hell she was thinking

For a long time she flew, only when she thought no one else was watching.

The first time her laughter unfurled its wings in the wind, we knew that the world would never be the same”-

In those days, we finally chose to walk like giants and hold the world in arms grown strong with love And there may be many things we forget in the days to come, But this will not be one of them.

I like geography best, he said, because your mountains & rivers know the secret. Pay no attention to boundaries.

Real Reason: There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other's cooking & say it was good.

Your job is to focus on my personal happiness, she said, & I've got big plans, so break time is over.

I've read a lot of books, so I know bunches of stuff that sounds like it could be true.

Single Mind: If I love you with all my heart, she said, what will you give me? & then she stopped & said I didn't have to answer that because she was going to do it anyway.

In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.

I used to believe my father about everything but then I had children myself & now I see how much stuff you make up just to keep yourself from going crazy.

Living Memory I carry you with me into the world, into the smell of rain & the words that dance between people & for me, it will always be this way, walking in the light, remembering being alive together

Remember to use positive affirmations. I am not a dork is not one of them.

The clock is a conspiracy & a crime against humanity and I would not own one except I miss appointments without it.

I spent a long time trying to find my center until I looked closely at it one night & found it had wheels and moved easily in the slightest breeze. So now I spend less time sitting and more time sailing.

Falling into Place: deciding everything is falling into place perfectly as long as you don't get too picky about what you mean by place. Or perfectly.

I didn't listen to her because she was my mother & wouldn't know anything until I was much older.

Thousand Moments: I still remember the day the world took you back & there was never time to thank you for the thousand scattered moments you left behind to watch us while we slept.

This is a giant block of whatever is most difficult for you to carry & trust me on this, you'll carry it more times than you can count until you decide that's exactly what you want to do most & then it won't weigh a thing anymore

What I'm mostly good at is sleeping, he once told me in confidence, but he added, I don't see much future in it.

feels like some kind of ride but it's turning out just to be life going absolutely perfectly

Trapped mainly by wanting things to be exactly as they are, only better

I think my life would be easier, she said, if I could just get my selves to agree on something.

Favorite Places: I'm not that good at being a tourist because I'm always looking at the way the light shines in your hair or the way your dress opens to the wind & my favorite places in the world are places filled with you.

I have a renewed commitment to elegance, she said, in case you think I'm just spending money for the fun of it.

Quiet Pride: There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said to my daughter, though some days I'm louder about other stuff so it's easy to miss that.

One of Us: Someday, the light will shine like a sun through my skin & they will say, What have you done with your life? & though there are many moments I think I will remember, in the end, I will be proud to say, I was one of us.

She learned to love him before he thought it was even possible, so he didn't have a chance to hide & mess it up & while it was a little scary at times, mainly he could not even imagine the world without her there.

Partners: Tied together by stuff too difficult to explain to someone new

More Fair: They left me with your shadow, saying things like Life is not fair & I believed them for a long time. But today, I remembered the way you laughed & the heat of your hand in mine & I knew that life is more fair than we can ever imagine if we are there to live it

Start here & go until you die, he said. What's so complicated about that?

Smaller World: I know he's not really gone, she said, but the world still feels smaller to me today.

Mr Right: He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time.

When I first discovered the moon, he said, I gave it a different name. But everyone kept calling it the moon. The real name never caught on.

The Wonder of it All: Sitting there in your pajamas & all the time in the world & if I could keep any moment it would be this: watching you & holding my breath with the wonder of it all.

Life Plan: I asked her what she planned to do with her life & she said she was way beyond that point already. I'm just happy I remember to be there when it happens, she said.

I have too much to lose, she said, if I cross that line. Like what? I said. She could not think of anything that day so she said she'd get back to me. Since then I've been thinking what I would lose if I cross my line & I haven't come up with anything either. There's always another line somewhere.

Waiting for the pen to dry up so he can start fresh with thoughts that are worth new ink.

If you were smart, you'd probably spend more time stretching, he said & I said, If I were really smart, I'd probably spend more time just sitting in the shade drinking lemonade.

Side by Side: We sat side by side in the morning light & looked out at the future together.

Permanence: Just because they die, she said, doesn't mean they go away.

Quiet Spaces We had gone far enough together to listen easily in the quiet spaces.

Brian Andreas Promise #1: Promises to Myself #1: I will tell the truth unless I get confused & I think I could get in real trouble if someone found out, in which case, I will lie as convincingly as possible for as long as I feel the need.

there are things you do because they feel right and they may make no sense and they may make no money and it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other and to eat each other's cooking and say it was good.

Hoping to Fall Out: Leaning out as far as she can, hoping she'll fall soon, so she can stop worrying about whether it will happen or not.

Almost Beyond: She laid on my chest & her breathing filled me almost to beyond what I could hold.

Quiet Prayer: As long as the sun shall rise goes the old lovers vow. But we are children of a scientific age & have no time for poetry. Still, I offer a quiet prayer of thanks for the sunlight each time I see your face.

My grandmother used to say life was so much easier when you were simple-minded. It’s taken me almost my whole life to understand what she meant.

She told me once that the year she went to England she painted her buttons yellow so she would remember what the sun felt like.

My grandma used to plant tomato seedlings in tin cans from tomato sauce & puree & crushed tomatoes she got from the Italian restaurant by her house, but she always soaked the labels off first. I don't want them to be anxious about the future, she said. It's not healthy.

Is there a lot of stuff you don't understand? she said & I said pretty much the whole thing & she nodded & said that's what she thought, but it was nice to hear it anyways & we sat there on the porch swing, listening to the wind & growing up together.

Treasures: The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it.

She always camouflaged herself as a crowd. I've never been lonely, she said, but sometimes it's hard to think above the noise.

Season of Joy: She asked me when the season of joy was supposed to end & I said I didn't really think there was an exact date, so we left the tree up till June that year.

Last Minute: I have to buy all my presents at the last minute, she said, or I get too excited & just give them away.

Ten Commandments: I asked her why she never told us about the Ten Commandments & she said she wasn't ever that good with numbers so she loved everything as best she could & I remember thinking who needs all those rules anyway with a mother like her around.

Such Small Things: For a long time there were only your footprints & laughter in our dreams & even from such small things, we knew we could not wait to love you forever.

Invention: I always wanted to invent something that would move around & make funny noises & would change the world as we know it & I forgot all about that until we had kids & now I see I came pretty close.

The Whole World: My favorite thing is being your lap while we sit there together & love the whole world.

Scraps of Magic: These are little scraps of magic & when you paste them together you get a memory of something fine & strong, she said. Sometimes it takes till you're 40 to see it though.

These are the multiple shadows because there were a lot of things she walked away from without a word of explanation when she was younger & she still thinks about them more than she needs to.

I'm an outsider by choice, she said, but I'm hoping that won't be my choice forever.

When she played her music even the night demons stopped their work & it took them some time to remember what it was they were doing & the best of them had no stomach for it for a long time after that.

I buried a nickel under the porch when I was 8, she said, but one day my grandma died & they sold the house & I never got to go back for it. A nickel used to mean something, I said. She nodded. It still does, she said & then she started to cry.

When I was 5, he said, my family forgot & left me at the fair. I wandered around in the bright sounds & smells of hot sawdust & cotton candy for hours. It was already too late by the time my parents found me. I haven't been fit for decent society since.