James Morrow

Quotes

1. “There’s something else, Beverly. I’m a minister of the Lord. This will be unusual for me, a kind of experiment.”

   “I know all about it, Reverend. You folks do more experimenting than Princeton’s entire physics department.”

   p. 66

2. 

   As with the rest of Phoebe’s species, Julie must not let her become dependent upon supernatural solutions, trading one addiction for another.

   p. 133

3. 

   The man was fat. His belly arrived like an advance guard, heralding the bulk to come, huge shoulders, a surplus chin. His white cassock had settled over his body like a tarpaulin dropped on a blimp.

   p. 214

4. 

   When a species fixates on the supernatural, it ceases to mature.

   p. 118

5. 

   Although Bix Constantine disbelieved in hell as intensely as he did in heaven, he knew what the place would be like. Hell, for Bix, was jealousy. It was failed journalists seeing their enemies receive Pulitzer Prizes. It was compulsive gamblers seeing jackpots gush from adjacent players’ slot machines and sex-starved young men seeing their friends piled high with naked cheerleaders.

   p. 144

6. 

   “I’ve been good, I’ve been bad—nothing gets her attention. What am I supposed to do, sacrifice a goat?”

   “Perhaps you should start a religion. You know—reveal your mother to the world.”

   “How can I reveal her when I don’t know what she’s like?”

   “Use your imagination. Everybody else does.”

   p. 84

7. 

   “I’m really interested in this stuff.” Julie rubbed a carton labeled ELEMENTARY PARTICLES.

   “Physics?”

   “Physics, biology, stars, everything.”

   Howard said, “Good for you. These days most people prefer to impoverish their minds with mysticism.”

   p. 87

8. 

   People are always asking, does God exist? Of course she does. The real question: what is she like?

   p. 69

9. 

   “Actually, the answer’s quite simple.” Two red eyes floated in the mist.

   “Really? Tell me. Why does God allow evil?”

   The red eyes vanished, leaving only the lantern and the night. “Because power corrupts,” said Wyvern’s disembodied voice. “And absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

   p. 85

10. 

    The problem is, only a few people get to be scientists. You see the dilemma? Given the choice between a truth they can appreciate and a lie they can live, most people will take you-know-what.

    p. 138

11. 

    I can’t help suggesting that a God who communicates through leukemia is at best deranged.

    p. 116

12. 

    What good is it having God for a mother if she never sends you a birthday card?

    p. 50