Line #4 Quotes/HouseOfLeaves


1	->''"It's a book about a book about a film about a [[blue:house]] that is a labyrinth. In short, it's a book that is a labyrinth."''
2	-->-- One review of the book
3
4	----
5
6	->''"Reading ''[[blue:House]] of Leaves'' is like reading a book that actively wishes you harm. It's a challenge book. I can't wait to get to the last page and see [[GameplayGrading B RANK]] floating above the text."''
7	-->-- [[Podcast/PleaseStopTalking Brendaniel]] on [[https://x.com/BrendanielH/status/1660871037553082369?s=20 Twitter]]
8
9	----
10
11	->''"Little solace comes\
12	to those who grieve\
13	when thoughts keep drifting\
14	as walls keep shifting\
15	and this great blue world of ours\
16	seems a [[blue:house]] of leaves\
17	moments before the wind."''
18
19	----
20
21	->''This is not for you.''
22	-->-- Dedication page
23	->''Muss es sein? (Does it have to be?)''
24	-->-- The next page
25
26	----
27
28	->''"Picture that. In your dreams."''
29
30	----
31
32	->''"Who has never killed an hour? Not casually or without thought, but carefully: a premeditated murder of minutes. The violence comes from a combination of giving up, not caring, and a resignation that getting past it is all you can hope to accomplish. So you kill the hour. You do not work, you do not read, you do not daydream. If you sleep it is not because you need to sleep. And when at last it is over, there is no evidence: no weapon, no blood, and no body. The only clue might be the shadows beneath your eyes or a terribly thin line near the corner of your mouth indicating something has been suffered, that in the privacy of your life you have lost something and the loss is too empty to share."''
33
34	----
35
36	->''"Sublime is something you choke on after a shot of tequila."''
37
38	----
39
40	->''"Some people reflect light, some deflect it, you by some miracle, seem to collect it."''
41
42	----
43
44	->''"There's only one choice now: finish what Zampanò himself failed to finish. Re-inter this thing in a binding tomb. Make it only a book."''
45
46	----
47
48	->''"Then no matter where you are, in a crowded restaurant or on some desolate street or even in the comforts of your own home, you'll watch yourself dismantle every assurance you ever lived by. You'll stand aside as a great complexity intrudes, tearing apart, piece by piece, all of your carefully conceived denials, whether deliberate or unconscious. And then for better or worse you'll turn, unable to resist, though try to resist you still will, fighting with everything you've got not to face the thing you most dread, what is now, what will be, what has always come before, the creature you truly are, the creature we all are, buried in the nameless black of a name.\
49	And then the nightmares will begin."''
50
51	----
52
53	->''"Whoever finds and publishes this work shall be entitled to all proceeds. I ask only that my name take its rightful place. Perhaps you will even prosper. If, however, you discover that readers are less than sympathetic and choose to dismiss this enterprise out of hand, then may I suggest you drink plenty of wine and dance in the sheets of your wedding night, for whether you know it or not, now you truly are prosperous. They say truth stands the test of time. I can think of no greater comfort than knowing this document failed such a test."''
54
55	----
56
57	->''"Is it possible to love something so much, you imagine it wants to destroy you only because it has denied you?"''
58
59	----
60
61	->''"Walls black like black waters when they are heavy and seem to belong to other seas."''
62
63	----
64
65	->''"Alas to leave. For this all has been a great leaving. Of sorts. Hasn't it?"''
66
67	----
68
69	->''"I've wandered as far west as I can go. Sitting now on the sand, I watch the sun blur into an aftermath. Reds finally marrying blues. Soon night will enfold us all."''
70
71	----
72
73	->''"My little eye sack. My little Brahma lamb. Mommy's going to be okay. Don't worry."''
74
75	----
76
77	->''"i was on line. i had no recollection of how i got there. of how i got sucked in there. it was pitch black. i suspected the power had failed. i started moving. i had no idea which direction i was headed. i kept moving. i had the feeling i was being watched. i asked "who's there?" the echoes created a passage and disappeared. i followed them"''
78
79	----
80
81	->''"Call me the momma to all strays."''
82
83	----
84
85	->''"To get a better idea try this: Focus on these words, and whatever you do don't let your eyes wander past the perimeter of this page. Now imagine just beyond your peripheral vision, maybe behind you, maybe to the side of you, maybe even in front of you, but right where you can't see it, something is quietly closing in on you, so quiet in fact you can only hear it as silence. Find those pockets without sound. That's where it is. Right at this moment. But don't look. Keep your eyes here. Now take a deep breath. Go ahead take an even deeper one. Only this time as you start to exhale try to imagine how fast it will happen, how hard it's gonna hit you, how many times it will stab your jugular with its teeth or are they nails?, don't worry, that particular detail doesn't matter, because before you even have time to process that you should be moving, you should be running, you should at the very least be flinging up your arms- you sure as hell should be getting rid of this book- you won't have time to even scream."''
86
87	----
88
89	->''"The walls are endlessly bare. Nothing hangs on them, nothing defines them. They are without texture. Even to the keenest eye or most sentient fingertip, they remain unreadable. You will never find a mark there. No trace survives. The walls obliterate everything. They are permanently absolved of all record. Oblique, forever obscure and unwritten. Behold the perfect pantheon of absence."''
90
91	----
92
93	->''"Years ago, when'' [[blue:House]] of Leaves ''was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted cult following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth - musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies - the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children."''
94	-->Dust jacket, second edition
95
96	----
97
98	->''"Of course there always will be darkness but I realize now something inhabits it. Historical or not. Sometimes it seems like a cat, the panther with its moon mad gait or a tiger with stripes of ash and eyes as wild as the winter oceans. Sometimes its the curve of a wrist or what's left of romance, still hiding in the drawer of some long lost nightstand or carefully drawn in the margins of some old discarded calendar. Sometimes it's even just a vapor trail speeding west, prophetic, over clouds aglow with dangerous light. Of course these are only images, my images, and in the end they're born out of something much more akin to a Voice, which though invisible to the eye and frequently unheard by even the ear still continues, day and night, year after year, to sweep through us all.\
99	Just as you have swept through me.\
100	Just as I now sweep through you."''
101
102	----
103	->''"Now though, I realize what I should have said - in the spirit of the dark; in the spirit of the staircase -\
104	'Known some call is air am'\
105	Which is to say -\
106	I am not what I used to be."''
107
108	----
109
110	->''"Perhaps in the margins of darkness, I could create a son who is not missing; who lives beyond even my own imagination and invention; whose lusts, stupidities, and strengths carry him farther than even he or I could anticipate; who sees the world for what it is; and consequently bears the burden of everyone's tomorrow with unprecedented wisdom and honor because he is one of the very few who has successfully interrogated his own nature. His shields are instantly available though seldom used. And those who value him shall prosper while those who would destroy him shall perish. He will fulfill a promise I made years ago but failed to keep."''
111
112	----
113
114	->''"Stairs! We have found stairs!"''
115
116	----
117
118	->''"What miracle is this? This giant tree.''\
119	''It stands ten thousand feet high''\
120	''But doesn't reach the ground. Still it stands.''\
121	''Its roots must hold the sky."''
122	-->"Yggdrasil"

Context Quotes / HouseOfLeaves