Quotes from good books read in August

I found a few quotes from the books I read in August. They were too long to put into the short summary, but why not give them a post of their own? I also added a few quotes from Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus.

The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster

As said, a great book. The Brooklyn Follies are full of stories, wonderful stories, stories about genuin people, about their lives, for good or for bad. Nathan Glass, the main protagonist is a wonderful character that you just can't help not loving. His attitude to life, may be because he has given up on having special dreams or demands from life, is clear cut. 

"Life got in the way. two years in the army, work, marriage, family responsibilities, the need to earn more and more money, all the much that bogs us down when we don't have the balls to stand up for ourselves - but I had never lost my interest in books. Reading was my escape and my conform, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head."

"By that point, of course, the girl no longer misses the doll. Kafka has given her something else instead, and by the time those three weeks are up, the letters have cured her of her unhappiness. She has the story, and when a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists."

A Very English Scandal by John Preston

An amazing story from real life. 

"Ten days later, the bill was ratified by the House of Lords. Afterwards Lord Arran was asked why his homosexual law reforms had succeeded, while his efforts to protect the rights of badgers had not. Arran paused, and then said ruminatively, 'There are not many badgers in the House of Lords."

"But why were they prepared to go to such lengths to help Thorpe? This was a question that Bessell often asked himself in later life. The only explanation he could come up with was the Thorpe had a remarkable capacity for inspiring not just loyalty in his friends but something far more than that - a willingness to endanger, even sacrifice, themselves on his behalf."

"I am sorry to be a bother. But the fist lesson in politics is that no one can be as disloyal as one's colleagues!" (letter from Jeremy Thorpe to Reginald Maudling)

"Previously, David Holmes had told Bessell that Thorpe had believed their story of how they had tried - and failed - to bump off Scott. Holmes claimed that the two of them had endeavoured to lure him to Florida, intending to shoot him and dump his body in the big swamp. Unfortunately, Scott had failed to appear, and so they had given up. Of all the excuses ever offered for failing to kill someone, this must be among the limpest. Even so, it had apparently been enough to banish any thoughts of murder from Thorpe's mind."

"As far as Bernard - now Lord - Donoughue was concerned, the way in which Thorpe was treated was entirely in keeping with the British Establishment's desire to protect itself. 'It suited the Establishment for him to be found not guilty. On the other hand they were protecting him because they were protecting so many other things as well - thing they didn't want to come out But then he was effectively locked up in a cupboard so that he couldn't say anything. "

The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee

I did like this book, but am not sure about the message. Anyone who has read it? The writing is beautiful as everything from Coetzee.

"'Then why the asceticism that you preach? You tell us to subdue our hunger, to starve the dog inside us. Why? What is wrong with hunger? What are our appetites for if not to tell us what we need? If we had no appetites, no desires, how would we live?'"

"'To my ear that is an old way of thinking. In the old way of thinking, no matter how much you may have, there is always something missing. The name you choose to give this something-more that is missing is passion. Yet I am willing to bet that if tomorrow you were offered all the passion you wanted - passion by the bucketful - you would promptly find something new to miss, to lack. This endless dissatisfaction, this yearning for the something-more that is missing, is a way of thinking we are well rid of, in my opinion. Nothing is missing. The nothing that you think is missing is an illusion. You are living by an illusion."

"He remembers asking Àlvaro once why there was never any news on the radio. 'News of what?' inquired Àlavaro. 'News of what is going on in the world,' he replied. 'Oh,' said Àlvaro, 'is something going on?' As before, he was ready to suspect irony. But no, there was none."

"'Look at Fidel,' she says. 'Look at David. They are not creatures of memory. Children live in the present, not the past. Why not take your lead from them? Instead of waiting to be transfigured, why not try to be like a child again?'

"'We have no history, any of us, it is all washed out." Can you blame him if he feels frustrated and rebellious, and then retreats into a private world where he is free to make up his own answers?'"