Top 15 Jeffrey Ford Quotes

The wind and sun, the salt water, the hard work aged a body rapidly, and when I would look at the old man who clammed, I was too young to sense the wisdom their years on the water had bestowed upon them and saw only what I did not want to become.

Now I was stuck and could feel the tide of years suddenly beginning to rise around me.

Nothing is more comforting to people than to have their certainties trumpeted back to them in bold, clear typeface.

Can you think of anything, my dear Mr. Fell, more intricately complex, more perfectly compact and thoroughly functional than the human eye?"
"No, sir," said August.
"I thought not," said Larchcroft. "Consider this, though. Our eyes were created by light. Without the existence of light, we would not have eyes. Over the long course of man's evolutionarily maturation to his modern condition, light sculpted these magical orbs, making subtle adjustments through the centuries, until now they are capable of the incredible process of sight. This most vital sense, not only a means of self-preservation but the single most important catalyst for culture, is a product of the inherent genius of light.

Halloween was close, our favorite holiday because it carried none of the pain-in-the-ass holiness of Christmas and still there was free candy.

My hero was J. S. Bach. It was from his works that I came to understand mathematics and, through a greater understanding of math, came to a greater understanding of Bach—the golden ratio, the rise of complexity through the reiteration of simple elements, the presence of the cosmic in the common.

Parents—so essential yet sometimes like something you have stepped in and cannot get off your shoe. What else is there but to love them?

I understand the human brain. It's a double-edged sword. An evolutionarily development that gives you the wherewithal to know that life is basically a shit pastry one is obliged to eat slowly, and the ability to disguise that fact with beautiful delusions."
"Where do God and the cash come in?" asked Slackwell.
"The cash is the pastry part. God, he just likes to watch us eat. The more we eat the more he loves us. You can't live without love.

Between Heaven and Hell there is this place called reality. Reality might as well be Hell if you don’t have cash.

“You gotta watch that anger. The customer’s always right,” said Merk.
“The customer’s hardly ever right,” said Slackwell.

If he’s not crazy, he’s probably playing with your mind. He seems to have a healthy measure of mischief about him. That string tie is a good indicator.

He kneels and prays to heaven but nothing happens.

Life was never so clear-cut as to offer anything as certain as a war between Heaven and Hell. That was for stories.

Real memories intrude now and then as do self-admonitions for a wasted life, but the smoke’s other feature is that it lets you not give a shit about anything but taking in more smoke.

My dear Philosopher," said the countess. "You give sanity a bad name.