Quotes From "The Road" By Cormac McCarthy

You have my whole heart. You always did.
1
You have my whole heart. You always did. Cormac McCarthy
2
People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn't believe in that. Tomorrow wasn't getting ready for them. It didn't even know they were there. Cormac McCarthy
3
He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it. . Cormac McCarthy
4
Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that. You forget some things, dont you? Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget. Cormac McCarthy
5
Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave. Cormac McCarthy
He could not construct for the child's pleasure the world...
6
He could not construct for the child's pleasure the world he'd lost without constructing the loss as well and he thought perhaps the child had known this better than he. Cormac McCarthy
Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.
7
Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden. Cormac McCarthy
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He...
8
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke. Cormac McCarthy
9
Then he just knelt in the ashes. He raised his face to the paling day. Are you there? he whispered. Will I see you at the last? Have you a neck by which to throttle you? Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh God, he whispered, Oh God. Cormac McCarthy
Carry the fire.
10
Carry the fire. Cormac McCarthy
Can you do it? When the time comes? When the...
11
Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time. Curse God and die. Cormac McCarthy
Every day is a lie. But you are dying. That...
12
Every day is a lie. But you are dying. That is not a lie. Cormac McCarthy
13
And the dreams so rich in color. How else would death call you? Waking in the cold dawn it all turned to ash instantly. Like certain ancient frescoes entombed for centuries suddenly exposed to the day. Cormac McCarthy
This is my child, he said. I wash a dead...
14
This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man's brains out of his hair. That is my job. Cormac McCarthy
15
When we're all gone at last then there'll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He'll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it to. He'll say: where did everybody go? And that's how it will be. What's wrong with that? Cormac McCarthy
16
Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time. Curse God and die. What if it doesn't fire? It has to fire. Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock? Cormac McCarthy
There is no God and we are his prophets.
17
There is no God and we are his prophets. Cormac McCarthy
18
The frailty of everything revealed at last. Old and troubling issues resolved into nothingness and night. The last instance of a thing takes the class with it. Turns out the light and is gone. Look around you. Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all. Cormac McCarthy
19
What is it? Nothing. I had a bad dream. What did you dream about? Nothing. Are you okay? No. He put his arms around him and held him. It's okay, he said. I was crying. But you didnt wake up. I'm sorry. I was just so tired. I meant in the dream. Cormac McCarthy
What he could bear in the waking world he could...
20
What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return. Cormac McCarthy
And the dreams so rich in color. How else would...
21
And the dreams so rich in color. How else would death call you? Waking in the cold dawn it all turned to ash instantly. Cormac McCarthy
22
No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. Cormac McCarthy
All things of grace and beauty such that one holds...
23
All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. Cormac McCarthy
24
...the space which [books] occupied was itself an expectation. Cormac McCarthy
25
Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery. Cormac McCarthy
26
If only my heart were stone. Cormac McCarthy
27
He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the words and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not. Cormac McCarthy
28
What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not. Cormac McCarthy
29
His mind was betraying him. Phantoms not heard from in a thousand years rousing slowly from their sleep. Cormac McCarthy
30
Each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. Cormac McCarthy
31
On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world. Cormac McCarthy
32
When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. Cormac McCarthy
33
Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Cormac McCarthy
34
People always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn't believe in that. Tomorrow wasn't getting ready for them. It didn't even know they were there. Cormac McCarthy
35
Suppose you were the last one left? Suppose you did that to yourself? Cormac McCarthy
36
Rich dreams now which he was loathe to wake from. Things no longer known in the world. The cold drove him forth to mend the fire. Memory of her crossing the lawn toward the house in the early morning in a thin rose gown that clung to her breasts. He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the words and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not. Cormac McCarthy
37
He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the word and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not. Cormac McCarthy
38
Do you think I lie to you? No. But you think I might lie to you about dying. Yes. Okay. I might. But we're not dying. Okay. Cormac McCarthy
39
By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp. Cormac McCarthy
40
How would you know if you were the last man on Earth? He said. I don't guess you would know it. You'd just be it. Cormac McCarthy
41
What's the bravest thing you ever did? He spat in the road a bloody phlegm. Getting up this morning, he said. Cormac McCarthy
42
The one thing I can tell you is that you wont survive for yourself. I know because I would never have come this far. A person who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost. Breathe it into being and coax it along with words of love. Offer it each phantom crumb and shield it from harm with your body. As for me my only hope is for eternal nothingness and I hope it with all my heart. Cormac McCarthy
43
In a pocket of his knapsack he'd found a last half packet of cocoa and he fixed it for the boy and then poured his own cup with hot water and sat blowing at the rim. You promised not to do that, the boy said. What? You know what, Papa.He poured the hot water back into the pan and took the boy's cup and poured some of the cocoa into his own and then handed it back. I have to watch you all the time, the boy said. . Cormac McCarthy
44
He lay listening to the water drip in the woods. Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone. Cormac McCarthy
45
Where all was burnt to ash before them no fires were to be had and the nights were long and dark and cold beyond anything they'd yet encountered. Cold to crack the stones. To take your life. Cormac McCarthy
46
He rose and stood tottering in that cold dark with his arms held out for balance while the vestibular calculations in his skull cranked out their reckonings. An old chronicle. To seek out the upright. No fall but preceded by a declination.. Upright to what? Something nameless in the night, lode or matrix. To which he and the stars were common satellite. Like the great pendulum in its rotunda scribing through the long day movements of the universe of which you may say it knows nothing and yet know it must. . Cormac McCarthy
47
Where men can't live gods fare no better. Cormac McCarthy
48
In the draws the smoke coming off the ground like mist and the thin black trees burning on the slopes like heathen candles. Cormac McCarthy
49
You have my whole heart. You always did. You're the best guy. You always were. Cormac McCarthy
50
Just take me with you. Please.I cant. Please, Papa.I cant. I cant hold my son dead in my arms. I thought I could but I cant. Cormac McCarthy