The Vanished Birds Quotes

“He wanted to warn these children that time was not their friend; that though today might seem special, there would be a tomorrow, and a day after that; that the best-case scenario of a well-spent life was the slow and steady unraveling of the heart’s knot.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“The people who leave always forget that the world doesn't end once they've gone," she said. "They forget about the decay.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Take my day, they sang, but give me the night. Feed the hearth and ready the brew, for I am coming home to you.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Dana nestled into the crook of Fumiko’s neck and whispered, “If we can’t have what is ours, then no one can.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Memory is water through fingers.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“I was happy, but I also wasn’t. Something was missing, here,” she said, tapping her chest, her heart. “Or not missing, but sleeping. But nothing here could wake it up. It made me feel alone. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Take my day, but give me the night.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“She was amused by how much she enjoyed Dana's surprise kisses, and the impromptu hand-holding; displays of affection she had been averse to in other couples, finding it trite and ostentatious, as if the couple were trying to prove to the rest of the world how in love they were. But now she knew why they did it--how it was like having a secret; a language only two people shared.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“They haven't stopped at just stealing power, now buying up land from the government, expanding their acreage. Families evicted from the homes they've been living in for years. Some of my colleagues are resigned; say this is the history of our species, and the best we can do is win the tiny battles and hope for some sea change. The more I see, the more difficult it is to disagree with them. But a part of me still revolts against the notion that this is our basic nature; that we are, in essence, self-serving creatures. That love is an explainable construct and souls are a pretty feint to distract ourselves from our own cruel emptiness.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“The climb was fruitless, the pride of effort a holdover from the old days. Who was the first person to climb a mountain, and what god did they expect to witness at its peak? What truth?”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“But a part of me still revolts against the notion that this is our basic nature; that we are, in essence, self-serving creatures. That love is an explainable construct and souls are a pretty feint to distract ourselves from our own cruel emptiness.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“There is no assuaging the fear that things end & people leave.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Perhaps he has the Kind One speak it for him first, before he tries it out on his own; smiling over the syllables, the sound like a sweet on his tongue, rhyming with the word of his soul; a discovery of not only his new name, but a guiding philosophy on life.
That this is how everyone should be named: a hand, thrown into a bag of words, in search of that singular and fitting shape.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Then I will break the sky," he said.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“They cut so much from you, but not everything, it seems. They still believe memories are citizens of the mind. But memories also live in the bones, and the blood.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“All the years she had given up to the Pocket. The sacrifices that were now irrelevant. There would be no more lost time. No more derelicts stranded in the fringe without hope of rescue. No more last goodbyes to old friends. No skipping across the entire lifetimes of forgotten lovers. It was so beautiful, and so horrible, she couldn’t breathe.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Some roads go on and on,” the Kind One said. “And some roads end before their route. But no road goes on forever.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“She supposed he loved her. A kind of love, one that she could not reciprocate, but still appreciated, for it was better than no love at all.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Whatever you might think, I am but a mere mortal, and it is startling how easy it is for mortals to be cruel when they are afraid.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“I would warn him if I could of this phenomenon; tell him to do his best to enjoy & savor each second. But I know all too well that one has to actually experience the phenomenon for oneself to understand how quick it all goes—how like days spent in delirious illness, you turn your head, for but a moment, & realize that a whole period of your life has gone.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Drink, or go thirsty, I told her. Eat, or starve. For the journey is long, & cannot be survived on hope alone.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“What more is there to say in the face of truth than silence?”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“It would take a genius of the highest order to create such a place of chaos.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Nothing makes you feel quite so monstrous as when a child runs from you.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“My dear captain,” he said, “we live this life only once. We must live it bravely.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“There was a time in my life where I would’ve waited for you, but now, seeing how everything is falling apart, I no longer think of time as a luxury to be spent.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“the Jaunt”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds