Write the unpublishable.. .and then publish it. Denis Johnson More Quotes by Denis Johnson More Quotes From Denis Johnson Death is the mother of beauty. Denis Johnson motherbeauty In my writing, I want to be laid bare as a human being. Denis Johnson humanswantwriting Will you believe me when I tell you there was kindness in his heart? His left hand didn't know what his right hand was doing. It was only that certain important connections had been burned through. If I opened up your head and ran a hot soldering iron around in your brain, I might turn you into someone like that. Denis Johnson kindnessheartbelieve I'll never forget you. Your husband will beat you with an extension cord and the bus will pull away leaving you standing there in tears, but you were my mother. Denis Johnson leavinghusbandmother The traveling salesmen fed me pills that made the lining of my veins feel scraped out, my jaw ached... I knew every raindrop by its name, I sensed everything before it happened. Like I knew a certain oldsmobile would stop even before it slowed, and by the sweet voices of the family inside, I knew we'd have an accident in the rain. I didn't care. They said they'd take me all the way. Denis Johnson namesrainsweet The abyss is full of reality, the abyss experiences itself, the abyss is alive. Denis Johnson abyssalivereality What's funny about Jesus' Son is that I never even wrote that book, I just wrote it down. I would tell these stories and people would say, You should write these things down. Denis Johnson writingbookjesus If you take a lie and allow your desire for the truth, you'll end up with some truth - not fact, but something that gets you closer to the truth. That's what we want. When we go to a play, we need to be assured that the experience we're having. Denis Johnson playdesirelying I think it's silly for anyone to think you could write under the influence, but if they'd like to think that, I'd like to keep the legend alive. Maybe I was under the influence when I wrote Jesus' Son and I just didn't know it. Denis Johnson sillywritingjesus I didnt finish the stories until we went to the Philippines and I got malaria. I couldnt work and I didnt have any money, but I had seven stories. So I wrote three or four more. Denis Johnson malariathreestories Sometimes I heard voices muttering in my head, and a lot of the time the world seemed to smolder around its edges. but I was in a little better physical shape every day, I was getting my looks back, and my spirits were rising, and this was all in all a happy time for me. All these weirdos, and me getting a little better right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us. Denis Johnson happy-timesvoicepeople She wanted to eat my heart and be lost in the desert with what she'd done, she wanted to fall on her knees and give birth from it, she wanted to hurt me as only a child can be hurt by its mother. Denis Johnson hurtmotherchildren I knew every raindrop by its name. Denis Johnson raindropsnames I'd been staying at the Holiday Inn with my girlfriend, honestly the most beautiful woman I'd ever known, for three days under a phony name, shooting heroin. We made love in the bed, ate steaks at the restaurant, shot up in the john, puked, cried, accused one another, begged of one another, forgave, promised, and carried one another to heaven. Denis Johnson holidaygirlfriendbeautiful He got right down in the dark between heartbeats, and rested there. And then he saw that another one wasn't going to come. That's it. That's the last. He looked at the dark. I would like to take this opportunity, he said, to pray for another human being. Denis Johnson lastsdarkopportunity What could be lonelier than trying to communicate? Denis Johnson communicatetrying [The doctor] peeked into the trauma room and saw the situation: the clerk - that is, me - standing next to the orderly, Georgie, both of us on drugs, looking down at a patient with a knife sticking up out of his face. 'What seems to be the trouble?' he asked. Denis Johnson knivesdoctorsdrug I have the belief in boldness. What I generally lack is the boldness itself. Because boldness doesn't feel bold. It feels scared not brave. Denis Johnson scaredbeliefbrave Before this moment I'd lived as a mind. Body, heart, soul, intellect, so we care ourselves into parts. But the whole of us, what can it be? Denis Johnson soulmindheart It was only when you left it alone that a tree might treat you as a friend. After the blade bit in, you had yourself a war. Denis Johnson treemightwar
