ISHMAEL

A few choice quotes from Daniel Quinn's ISHMAEL:

* Five fingers to not make a hand.
* To a mind ready for mythology, he was the beginning of what is meant by godlike. He had twice made a brief appearance in my life – and twice, with a single utterance, had transformed me.
* He began to speak to me as one speaks to the wind or to the waves crashing on a beach, uttering that which must be said but which must not be heard by anyone.
* Mere acquaintanceship leaves me unsatisfied, and few people are willing to accept the burdens and risks of friendship.
* If you are still then you will be better able to hear.
* He looked at me as if I were a roach he was sure he’d killed a week ago.
* I see what you’re getting at… it isn’t the tale you tell that counts, it’s the way you actually live.
* That’s not good enough. The fact that something is not a waste of time does not inspire me to do it.
* I let it go. What the hell, he knew what I was trying to say.
* Someone else would have handled it differently, probably better, revealing a greater heart, a finer sensibility.
* To call it daunting is like calling the Atlantic damp.