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Damon Galgut Quotes

If I had done this, if I had said that, in the end you are always more tormented by what you didn't do than what you did, actions already performed can always be rationalized in time, the neglected deed might have

If I had done this, if I had said that, in the end you are always more tormented by what you didn't do than what you did, actions already performed can always be rationalized in time, the neglected deed might have changed the world.

Damon Galgut
Done, World, Deeds
Damon Galgut (2010). “In a Strange Room”, p.33, Atlantic Books Ltd

A journey is a gesture inscribed in space, it vanishes even as it's made. You go from one place to another place, and on to somewhere else again, and already behind you there is no trace that you were ever there.

Damon Galgut
Journey, Somewhere Else, Space
"In a Strange Room: Three Journeys". Book by Damon Galgut, April 2010.

Things happen once only and are never repeated, never return. Except in memory.

Damon Galgut
Memories, Return, Happens
"In a Strange Room: Three Journeys". Book by Damon Galgut, April 2010.

The only way you can be universal is to be sure you are very specifically local.

Damon Galgut
Way, Universal, Locals

Poetry was syllable and rhythm. Poetry was the measurement of breath. Poetry was time make audible. Poetry evoked the present moment; poetry was the antidote to history. Poetry was language free from habit.

Damon Galgut
Measurement, Language, Moments
Damon Galgut (2011). “The Impostor”, p.36, Atlantic Books Ltd

There's no theme, no moral to be learned, except for the knowledge that lightning can strike from a clear blue sky one morning and take away everything you've built, everything you've counted on, leaving wreckage and no meaning behind. It can happen to anyone, it can happen to you.

Damon Galgut
Morning, Blue, Sky

In his clearest moments he thinks he has lost the ability to love, people or places or things, most of all the person and place and thing that he is. Without love nothing has value, nothing can be made to matter very much.

Damon Galgut
Thinking, People, Matter
Damon Galgut (2010). “In a Strange Room”, p.37, Atlantic Books Ltd

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