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Craig Clevenger Quotes

Everything in the universe is everything else. A man is a killer is a saint is a monkey is a cockroach is a goldfish is a whale, and the Devil is just the angel who asked for More.

Everything in the universe is everything else. A man is a killer is a saint is a monkey is a cockroach is a goldfish is a whale, and the Devil is just the angel who asked for More.

Craig Clevenger
Angel, Men, Whales
Craig Clevenger (2005). “Dermaphoria: A Novel”, Macadam Cage Pub

When you could discern a real threat from everything else, it was called caution. When you couldn't, it was called paranoia. ... You cannot separate paranoia from knowledge. The more you know, the more possibilities you see. The more possibilities you see, the more possibilities someone else sees. The more "someones" there are, the more "they" there are. It's a matter of simple math before you realize that They might not like you.

Craig Clevenger
Real, Math, Simple

A person’s life story is equal to what they have plus what they want most in the world, minus what they’re actually willing to sacrifice for it.

Craig Clevenger
Sacrifice, Stories, World
Craig Clevenger (2005). “The Contortionist's Handbook”

I learned to pick up each piece, one at a time, from my pile of potential matches and try to fit it from any angle into the socket, then discard it and move on. Each failure is meaningless. It's not me, it's the pieces, and I have to, absolutely must, try each and every piece every possible way until I find one that fits. They aren't failures, they're steps, small bits of progress.

Craig Clevenger
Moving, Progress, Trying

When you’re in love, your brain secretes endorphins into your blood. Organic morphine leaks out of a gland in your skull, feels like a low-grade opium rush. Some people confuse the two, the head rush and the love. You think you’re in love with a person, but you’re in love with a syringe.

Craig Clevenger
Love You, Thinking, Two
Craig Clevenger (2005). “The Contortionist's Handbook”

It's taken me years of practice to learn how to act natural.

Craig Clevenger
Taken, Years, Practice
Craig Clevenger (2014). “The Contortionist’s Handbook”, p.17, HarperCollins UK

I do know that I fell in love with the moment of falling in love and I wanted to keep that moment alive forever, at the expense of all those moments to follow.

Craig Clevenger
Falling In Love, Forever, Alive

Only everyone forgets how seldom our memory is accurate. Having more memory is just a way of distorting a greater amount of the past"p.193

Craig Clevenger
Memories, Past, Way

The time flies. The time flies feed on rotting clocks.

Craig Clevenger
Time Flies, Rotting, Clock
Craig Clevenger (2005). “Dermaphoria”, p.95, MP Publishing

i learned that predators don't intentionally choose the weak or old or sick. they kill what they can, which means the slow members of the pack. thus, they strengthen the very gene pool they're feeding from. the threshold for what is weak, old or sick gets raised, and the strength, speed and instincts of new generations of hunters grow. a beautiful, self-perpetuating system where evolution is the antithesis of entropy.

Craig Clevenger
Beautiful, Mean, Self
Craig Clevenger (2005). “The Contortionist's Handbook”

Imagine the one god himself has reversed his clock and reversed your regrets. Imagine knowing the bone-deep truth that whatever impossibility would make you truly happy has been granted. Imagine knowing you can once again hold your lost lover or your newborn child. Imagine what you feel during those first seconds of knowing. Now, imagine those first seconds last for days on end. .... Like I said, I'm a chemist. It's all coming back to me.p62

Craig Clevenger
Children, Regret, Newborn Child

The combination to be on guard for is young and bored, or young and resentful. You can spot them at social gatherings, the grad students or interns who tell you about syndromes, conditions, deviances, and disorders, and they love, love, love to talk. They speak in half-sentences with a knowing smile-squint, watch you falter at the pause, and then keep talking.

Craig Clevenger
Talking, Knowing, Bored

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