Magical Words - The Spectacular Now de Tim Tharp

“ But just remember this—weird’s good. Embrace the weird, dude. Enjoy it because it’s never going away.”

“Your eyes are a blue universe, and I’m just falling into them. No parachute. I don’t need one because I’m never going to hit the ground.”

" Forget the dark things. Take a drink and let time wash them away to wherever time washes things away to. "

“ “You can’t hang on every word,” I say. “There’s too much going on at any given moment. All you can do is absorb the general feel of it.” “

“ “Right. Have you seen Quigley lately? He’s a caveman. All I’d have to do is say two words to Alisa and he’d pummel me into a thin paste. They’d have to take me to the hospital on a spatula.” “

“ “You’re not going to embarrass me, are you?” he asks.

“When did I ever embarrass you?”

 “Do you really need me to list the times?” “

“ “Nothing lasts,” she says, and there’s a little crack in her voice. “You think it’s going to. You think, ‘Here’s something I can hold on to,’ but it always slips away.” “

“ “You’re right. Nothing does last. And there’s nothing you can hold on to. Not one thing. But that’s all right. It’s actually good. It’s like old people dying. They have to die so there’s room for babies.” “

“ It’s superb to be out in the early, early morning before the sun comes up. There’s this sense of being super-alive. You’re in on a secret that all the dull, sleeping people don’t know about. Unlike them, you’re alert and aware of existing right here in this precise moment between what happened and what’s going to happen. “

“ […] but my theory is that boredom is only for boring people with no imagination.“

“ “Everything’s fabulous when it’s new. Like when you’re a little kid. Everything is a sparkling wonder.”“

“ Here in the realm of books she’s self-assured. She has some of the control she doesn’t have anywhere else. “

“ The cold memories—the fighting memories—when those start to creep in, it’s time to move on. “

“ “It’s called compromise. The only way you’re going to get something to last in this world is to work at it.” “

“ “No, I don’t want that. But I don’t want just Thursday afternoons either. I don’t want just moments. I want a whole life.”

“Cassidy, don’t you know—life is made out of Thursday afternoons. You just keep having them one after the other and let everything else take care of itself.” “

“ Besides, it doesn’t matter if it’s real. It never does with dreams. They aren’t anything anyway but lifesavers to cling to so you don’t drown. Life is an ocean, and most everyone’s hanging on to some kind of dream to keep afloat. “

“ “Do you think that’s what death’s really like?” I ask.

“No,” she says. “I think, when we die, we don’t lose our identity, we gain a much, much bigger one. As big as the universe.” “

“ Nobody’s ever been young like we are right at this moment. We’re the Faster-than-the-Speed-of-Light Generation. “

“ We’re the Soon-to-Be-Obsolete Kids, and we’ve crowded in here to hide from the future and the past. We know what’s up—the future looms straight ahead like a black wrought-iron gate and the past is charging after us a like a badass Doberman, only this one doesn’t have any letup in him. “

 “ Well, this stage in the life of the buzz never heard anything close to that. This stage says, “I will never end. I am indestructible. I will last fabulously forever.” And, of course, you believe it. To hell with tomorrow. To hell with all problems and barriers. Nothing matters but the Spectacular Now. “

“ […] but if you’re always going to worry about minor drawbacks, then you’ll never accomplish anything. “

“ […] But that’s how life is. Just like that. You’re just running and running with a wall in front of you and a big black dog snapping at your ass.” “

“ Maybe a single person can save the world. I’ll bet I could. I could save the whole world—for a night. “

“ Goodbye, I say, goodbye, as I disappear little by little into the middle of the middle of my own spectacular now.”