DM Quotes

Stoicism

• “Mitchell’s stoicism masks deep disconnection-his coma triggers Jo’s primal “howling” through the streets"“ (EMYM)

• “Strongly, stoically deal with his own adolescent glooms” (VOL)

• “He had no wound to show, a limb missing, a phantom limb that continued to purify” (WB)

Vulnerability

• It scared him to have someone who was close, and who ought therefore to have been knowable, turn out so far from anything he could get ahold on” (VOL)

• “Her body was not her own- taken a wrong turn and gone haywire and now did exactly as it pleased” (TM)

• “The nakedness which he paraded his feelings dismayed me” (VOL)

Endurance

• “Everything was fine- I’m perfectly okay” (TM)

• “Learned quickly enough she either accepted him on his terms or she could not have him at all” (EMYM)

• “The persistence out there in the world, of the unexpected- an assurance that nothing was final or beyond surprise or change”

Human Connection

• “Angus and Braden’s friendship was untrammeled thinking aloud" -Can speak candidly to each other without judgement - able to be vulnerable indicates the strength of their bond (VOL)

• “A love that would be overwhelming” (EMYM)

• “She would howl if that’s what love brought her to” (EMYM)

Alienation

• “Watching the merriment and activity around him- he feels distanced from them”

• “The son of the town’s only solicitor", who after more than 20 years, has never been to the lagoons”

Otherness

• “Once again on the sidelines watching as he had been so often before”

• “Braden’s quirks might be quite different from anything [Angus] could claim to be “an opening gap” between them”

Transformation

• “Fellows who went out there were changed”

Social Norms

• “The greatcoat helped him to the part”

• “Get in a office, work in a shop- what do other girls do?”

• “A hysterical girl might do such a thing, but not a man, not Stuart Mckgowan sort of man”

Identity

• “You could present yourself as you wanted to be seen and then try to live up to it”