Brian Andreas Quotes

#1. Is willing to accept that she creates her own reality except for some of the parts where she can't help but wonder what the hell she was thinking

Brian Andreas

#2. The Whole World:
My favorite thing
is being your lap
while we sit there
together & love
the whole world.

Brian Andreas

#3. Side by Side:
We sat side by side in the morning light & looked out at the future together.

Brian Andreas

#4. There was a single blue line of crayon drawn across every wall in the house. What does it mean? I asked. A pirate needs the sight of the sea, he said and then he pulled his eye patch down and turned and sailed away.

Brian Andreas

#5. The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it

Brian Andreas

#6. I once had a garden filled with flowers that grew only on dark thoughts but they need constant attention & one day I decided I had better things to do.

Brian Andreas

#7. We lay there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I'd never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own.

Brian Andreas

#8. Partners:
Tied together by stuff too difficult to explain to someone new

Brian Andreas

#9. Thousand Moments:
I still remember the day the world took you back & there was never time to thank you for the thousand scattered moments you left behind to watch us while we slept.

Brian Andreas

#10. Quiet Spaces
We had gone far enough together to listen easily in the quiet spaces.

Brian Andreas

#11. Scent:
When she wore the hat, even many years later, she could always smell her mother's perfume & it was hard to remember she was supposed to be alone.

Brian Andreas

#12. Life Plan:
I asked her what she planned to do with her life & she said she was way beyond that point already. I'm just happy I remember to be there when it happens, she said.

Brian Andreas

#13. If you're talking to a child, you're going, 'This is the wonder of science and here's why I'm so fascinated by it.'

Brian Andreas

#14. Wrapped around my son with only the knowledge of the words of the world & a quiet remembrance of watching before this all began.

Brian Andreas

#15. When she played her music even the night demons stopped their work & it took them some time to remember what it was they were doing & the best of them had no stomach for it for a long time after that.

Brian Andreas

#16. These are the multiple shadows because there were a lot of things she walked away from without a word of explanation when she was younger & she still thinks about them more than she needs to.

Brian Andreas

#17. even after all these winters, I see you sitting there, perched at the edge of sunlight, feeling like the invitation of spring

Brian Andreas

#18. There are your fog people & your sun people, he said. I said I wasn't sure which kind I was. He nodded. Fog'll do that to you, he said.

Brian Andreas

#19. Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life.

Brian Andreas

#20. The World Itself:
When she held out her arms, the world itself wrapped around me & held me tight.

Brian Andreas

#21. This is a giant block of whatever is most difficult for you to carry & trust me on this, you'll carry it more times than you can count until you decide that's exactly what you want to do most & then it won't weigh a thing anymore

Brian Andreas

#22. The Wonder of it All:
Sitting there in your pajamas & all the time in the world & if I could keep any moment it would be this: watching you & holding my breath with the wonder of it all.

Brian Andreas

#23. The birds brought seeds & flowers & bits of brightly colored string & placed them in her hair while she slept so she would remember the wild joy of spring when she finally awoke.

Brian Andreas

#24. I didn't listen to her because she was my mother & wouldn't know anything until I was much older.

Brian Andreas

#25. Aerobics:
Death take me now & spare me the pain, she said. It was difficult for me to get that excited. Get a grip, I said, it's only aerobics.

Brian Andreas

#26. Quiet Prayer:
As long as the sun shall rise goes the old lovers vow. But we are children of a scientific age & have no time for poetry. Still, I offer a quiet prayer of thanks for the sunlight each time I see your face.

Brian Andreas

#27. I'm an outsider by choice, she said, but I'm hoping that won't be my choice forever.

Brian Andreas

#28. I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand & the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep & there are no words for that.

Brian Andreas

#29. One time I was standing on a corner in Chicago & a man stopped his car & asked for directions to a place I knew & I said that's too easy, ask me something harder & he yelled & said he wasn't playing games kid & then he drove off & I think about him sometimes & wonder if he ever got there.

Brian Andreas

#30. There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it is enough to be taken care of by my self.

Brian Andreas

#31. Smaller World:
I know he's not really gone, she said, but the world still feels smaller to me today.

Brian Andreas

#32. We sat in the car
& the night dropped
down until the
only sounds were
the crickets &
the dance of our voices

& for a moment
the world became
small enough to
roll back & forth
between us.

Brian Andreas

#33. We sat in the car
& the night dropped
down until the
only sounds were
the crickets &
the dance of our voices
& for a moment
the world became
small enough to
roll back & forth
between us.

Brian Andreas

#34. A few said they'd be horses. Most said they'd be some sort of cat. My friend said she'd like to come back as a porcupine. I don't like crowds, she said.

Brian Andreas

#35. Single Mind:
If I love you with all my heart, she said, what will you give me? & then she stopped & said I didn't have to answer that because she was going to do it anyway.

Brian Andreas

#36. One of Us:
Someday, the light will shine like a sun through my skin & they will say, What have you done with your life? & though there are many moments I think I will remember, in the end, I will be proud to say, I was one of us.

Brian Andreas

#37. She learned to love him before he thought it was even possible, so he didn't have a chance to hide & mess it up & while it was a little scary at times, mainly he could not even imagine the world without her there.

Brian Andreas

#38. They came to sit & dangle their feet off the edge of the world & after awhile they forgot everything but the good & true things they would do someday.

Brian Andreas

#39. In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination
and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.

Brian Andreas

#40. In those days, we finally chose to walk like giants and hold the world in arms grown strong with love
And there may be many things we forget in the days to come,
But this will not be one of them.

Brian Andreas

#41. I don't really like coffee, she said, but I don't really like it when my head hits my desk when I fall asleep either.

Brian Andreas

#42. Real Reason:
There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other's cooking & say it was good.

Brian Andreas

#43. I hope someday you see this is all life wants: for you to be your own kind of beautiful & not the kind that makes you forget who you are.

Brian Andreas

#44. She tapped her finger and nothing happened and she thought she had lost her magic, but it had only changed and it took her awhile to figure it out.

Brian Andreas

#45. I wish you could have been there for the sun & the rain & the long, hard hills. For the sound of a thousand conversations scattered along the road. For the people laughing & crying & remembering at the end. But, mainly, I wish you could have been there.

Brian Andreas

#46. I sometimes wake in the early morning & listen to the soft breathing of my child & I think to myself, this is one thing I will never regret & I carry that quiet with me all day long.

Brian Andreas

#47. I held her close for only a short time, but after she was gone, I'd see her smile on the face of a perfect stranger and I knew she would be there with me all the rest of my days.

Brian Andreas

#48. There are things you do because they feel right and they may make no sense and they may make no money and it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other and to eat each other's cooking and say it was good.

Brian Andreas

#49. Don't you hear it? She asked & I shook my head no & then she started to dance & suddenly there was music everywhere & it went on for a very long time & when I finally found words all I could say was thank you.

Brian Andreas

#50. Favorite Places:
I'm not that good at being a tourist because I'm always looking at the way the light shines in your hair or the way your dress opens to the wind & my favorite places in the world are places filled with you.

Brian Andreas

#51. There really is only one story that you need to tell as a scientist or a technologist. It's Prometheus stealing fire. That's it. That's what we do as scientists or technologists.

Brian Andreas

#52. The clock is a conspiracy & a crime against humanity
and I would not own one
except I miss appointments without it.

Brian Andreas

#53. I was waiting for the longest time, she said. I thought you forgot.
It is hard to forget, I said, when there is such an empty space when you are gone.

Brian Andreas

#54. I used to believe my father about everything but then I had children myself & now I see how much stuff you make up just to keep yourself from going crazy.

Brian Andreas

#55. I am only strong enough for a life of partial virtue.

Brian Andreas

#56. Frustrated because it's going too fast to see but if you could see it, it wouldn't make any sense because you'd be looking too close

Brian Andreas

#57. I still fly a lot in my dreams, she told us, but I try to stay close to the ground. At my age, a fall can be pretty serious.

Brian Andreas

#58. If there is any secret to this life i live, this is it: the sound of what cannot be seen sings within everything that can. and there is nothing more to it than that.

Brian Andreas

#59. When I first discovered the moon, he said, I gave it a different name. But everyone kept calling it the moon. The real name never caught on.

Brian Andreas

#60. Season of Joy:
She asked me when the season of joy was supposed to end & I said I didn't really think there was an exact date, so we left the tree up till June that year.

Brian Andreas

#61. Quiet Pride:
There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said to my daughter, though some days I'm louder about other stuff so it's easy to miss that.

Brian Andreas

#62. What are the rules? I said & he said you run & you run & you run until you fall over. There's a couple others in there for variety, he added, but that's the main one.

Brian Andreas

#63. Start here & go until you die, he said. What's so complicated about that?

Brian Andreas

#64. Your job is to focus on my personal happiness, she said, & I've got big plans, so break time is over.

Brian Andreas

#65. There is nothing more I ask of this life than this moment, exactly so. And suddenly forever seems like too short a time.

Brian Andreas

#66. There came a moment in the middle of the song when he suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room & after that he never forgot that he was part of something much bigger

Brian Andreas

#67. Why do they treat us like children? they said & I said why do you treat them like adults?
& their eyes opened wide & they began to laugh & talk all at once & suddenly everything looked possible again.

Brian Andreas

#68. I saw them standing there pretending to be just friends, when all the time in the world could not pry them apart.

Brian Andreas

#69. Finally has figured out there aren't enough quiet little British films around to protect her from the real world

Brian Andreas

#70. Someone asked them to be quiet, so it's just a matter of a time before all hell breaks loose.

Brian Andreas

#71. I have too much to lose, she said, if I cross that line. Like what? I said. She could not think of anything that day so she said she'd get back to me. Since then I've been thinking what I would lose if I cross my line & I haven't come up with anything either. There's always another line somewhere.

Brian Andreas

#72. For a long time she flew, only when she thought no one else was watching.

Brian Andreas

#73. My grandma used to plant tomato seedlings in tin cans from tomato sauce & puree & crushed tomatoes she got from the Italian restaurant by her house, but she always soaked the labels off first. I don't want them to be anxious about the future, she said. It's not healthy.

Brian Andreas

#74. Empty Spaces:
After his father died he carried his life more gently & left an empty space for the birds & other creatures.

Brian Andreas

#75. Brian Andreas Promise #1:
Promises to Myself #1: I will tell the truth unless I get confused & I think I could get in real trouble if someone found out, in which case, I will lie as convincingly as possible for as long as I feel the need.

Brian Andreas

#76. I like geography best, he said, because your mountains & rivers know the secret. Pay no attention to boundaries.

Brian Andreas

#77. They came to sit & dangle their feet off the edge of the world & after awhile they forgot everything but the good & true things they would do someday.

Brian Andreas

#78. One day, I decided to help wherever I could & it was almost like magic, because I was exactly what the world needed everywhere I went.

Brian Andreas

#79. Permanence:
Just because they die, she said, doesn't mean they go away.

Brian Andreas

#80. These are little packets of light and you need to plant them early in the year and remember to mark where they were because lots of times they look like weeds in the beginning and it's not until later that you see how beautiful they really are.

Brian Andreas

#81. Every day he stood in front of the Bank of America. You're trapped in the belly of a big pink pig, he said. We ignored him. We had work to do.

Brian Andreas

#82. She left pieces of her life behind her everywhere she went. It's easier to feel the sunlight without them, she said.

Brian Andreas

#83. Songs to Herself:
She waved at all the people on the trains & later, when she saw they didn't wave back, she started singing songs to herself & it went that way the whole day & she couldn't remember having a better time in her life.

Brian Andreas

#84. The first time her laughter unfurled its wings in the wind, we knew that the world would never be the same-

Brian Andreas

#85. Trying to follow in the footsteps of the masters, but it's a lot harder than it looks because even though they had the same size feet as us, they weren't looking down the whole time while they walked to make sure they were doing it right

Brian Andreas

#86. If you're right & I'm not, I'm going to be hell to live with, she said. So, you better think about that next time you want to be right.

Brian Andreas

#87. Everything changed the day she figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in her life.

Brian Andreas

#88. I've always liked the time before dawn because there's no one around to remind me who I'm supposed to be so it's easier to remember who I am.

Brian Andreas

#89. Such Small Things:
For a long time there were only your footprints & laughter in our dreams & even from such small things, we knew we could not wait to love you forever.

Brian Andreas

#90. What I'm mostly good at is sleeping, he once told me in confidence, but he added, I don't see much future in it.

Brian Andreas

#91. Are you a princess? I said & she said I'm much more than a princess, but you don't have a name for it yet here on earth.

Brian Andreas

#92. If you hold on to the handle, it's easier to maintain the illusion of control. But it's more fun if you just let the wind carry you.

Brian Andreas

#93. She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short.

Brian Andreas

#94. Scraps of Magic:
These are little scraps of magic & when you paste them together you get a memory of something fine & strong, she said. Sometimes it takes till you're 40 to see it though.

Brian Andreas

#95. Secret Notes:
He wrote secret notes to people he hadn't met yet. Some of them aren't even born, he said, but we live in a strange neighborhood & they will need help figuring things out & I won't always be around to explain it to them.

Brian Andreas

#96. I've read a lot of books, so I know bunches of stuff that sounds like it could be true.

Brian Andreas

#97. In the end, I think that I will like that we were sitting on the bed, talking & wondering where the time had gone.

Brian Andreas

#98. I spent a long time trying to find my center until I looked closely at it one night & found it had wheels and moved easily in the slightest breeze. So now I spend less time sitting and more time sailing.

Brian Andreas

#99. If you were smart, you'd probably spend more time stretching, he said & I said, If I were really smart, I'd probably spend more time just sitting in the shade drinking lemonade.

Brian Andreas

#100. Is there a lot of stuff you don't understand? she said & I said pretty much the whole thing & she nodded & said that's what she thought, but it was nice to hear it anyways & we sat there on the porch swing, listening to the wind & growing up together.

Brian Andreas