I'd seen glimpses of a different me. It was a different me because in those increments of time I thought I actually became a winner. The truth, however, is painful. It was a truth that told me with a scratching internal brutality that I was me, and that winning wan't natural for me. It had to be fought for, in the echoes and trodden footprints of my mind. In a way, I had to scavenge for moments of alrightness. Markus Zusak
About This Quote

In a story by Cormac McCarthy entitled The Road, a father and his son are traveling along a desolate highway in the middle of winter. As they walk through the white cold, they see a house that appears to be in the middle of nowhere. They go inside and find a man sitting in a chair with no coat. The father asks the man where he is going and he responds with, “I’m going to find my wife.” He tells the son to wait outside while he talks to his father-in-law.

The two men have a long conversation in which the father ultimately decides to leave his son in the company of this man. He says, "I can't take you. It's too far." The son disagrees, "But I can take care of myself," and insists that he will be fine on his own.

His father assures him that he will be fine but then leaves saying that he cannot take them both. The boy waits outside for hours before finally walking out into the freezing snow to find shelter for himself. He finds some old clothes left behind by someone else and uses them for warmth. While walking, he comes across some scraps of food that weren't thrown away by another family traveling on the road.

One piece of food is clearly labeled with salt, so he eats it without hesitation even though it had been sitting out all day long. The boy eventually runs out of food and walks back towards the house where his father left him earlier that day, but when he gets there it is gone. He walks away from the house thinking that it must not be there any longer but then stops when he hears what sounds like his father's voice coming from inside one of the rooms in which he had spent time earlier that day with his father-in-law. He runs back inside where he sees his father sitting in a chair covered in blood while holding up a knife covered in blood saying something like "the next one goes right here." The boy watches as his father stabs himself repeatedly until there is nothing left but blood on the knife and on his hands before dropping it onto the floor beside him saying "that's how you do it." The boy does not say anything to either one of them, but after some time has passed they sit up from their chairs seemingly unhurt by their wounds although they are both very weak from blood loss. They talk about things like how tired they are or how cold they are or how hungry

Source: Getting The Girl

Some Similar Quotes
  1. I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best. - Marilyn Monroe
  2. When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable. - Jess C. Scott
  3. When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always. - Mahatma Gandhi
  4. Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having... - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  5. The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then... - Thomas Merton
More Quotes By Markus Zusak
  1. The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.
  2. He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It’s his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry.
  3. A DEFINITION NOT FOUND IN THE DICTIONARY Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children
  4. She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Leisel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchist's suit...
  5. If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter.
Related Topics