StoryPeople quotes, by Brian Andreas

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.

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

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.

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

For a long time she flew when she thought no one else was watching.

She kept asking if the stories were true. I kept asking her if it mattered. We finally gave up. She was looking for a place to stand & I wanted a place to fly.

When I die, she said, I'm coming back as a tree with deep roots & I'll wave my leaves at the children every morning on their way to school & whisper tree songs at night in their dreams. Trees with deep roots know about the things children need.

There are things you do because they feel right & they 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.

You're the strangest person I ever met, she said & I said you too & we decided we'd know each other a long time.

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

I'm not sure if he's gone, she said, but his body is & that's the part I'm getting used to.

Most people she never tells about the tightrope because she doesn't want to listen to their helpful comments from the ground.

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

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

There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise.

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.

Most people don't know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don't get too comfortable & fall asleep & miss your life.

She laid on my chest & her breathing filled me almost to beyond what I could hold.

I need you to come home soon, she said. I'm walking around like a woman who's let herself go.

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.

That was the day the ancient songs of blood & war spilled from a hole in the sky & there was a long moment as we listened & fell silent in our grief & then one by one, we stood tall & came together & began to sing of life & love & all that is good & true & I will never forget that day when the ancient songs died because there was no one in the world to sing them.

I have a friend who used to ride bareback in a circus. In one picture I've seen she is wearing blue sequins with her smile spread wide as her arms. One time I asked her was it hard to balance? No, she said, you always balance. Only sometimes, she added, you balance on your butt.

Whenever she stood in line at the bank ,or while waiting for the bus, I noticed her feet. The right always in front & perpendicular to the left just so. Even after 2 children, she still dreamed of being a dancer.

Of course I act like a barbarian, he said. They're the only ones who have any fun in this life.

I have a friend who reads people's auras. He sees all sorts of colors like green & red & purple. He says anyone can do it. All it takes is forgetting everything you think you know & just looking. I've tried it & even though I haven't seen any colors yet, everyone I meet looks so beautiful when I stop knowing everything, that it's pretty hard to go back to the old way.

He followed the sun & she followed the stars & in dreams they listened closely for the beginning of all things, for that was where they knew they'd find each other.

I've always thought death was a lot like Christmas, he said. I can't wait to find out if being good the whole time was worth it.

Can you prove any of the stuff you believe in? my son asked me & when I said that's not how belief works, he nodded & said that's what he thought but he was just checking to make sure he hadn't missed a key point.

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

Everything changed the day he figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in his life.

We lay there & looked up at the night sky & she told me about stars called blue squares & red swirls & 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.

He told me that the night his mother died, there were storms & far away he saw purple lightning & someone left the window open & the room filled with a swirl of butterflies & she slipped out quietly without anyone noticing & I'm sure the grief was softer because of that.

Some days it's not worth the effort to pull myself together, she said, so I'm glad I get cable.

Whenever I go on a trip, I think about all the homes I've had & I remember how little has changed about what comforts me.

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

I'm not sure if there's one right place I'm supposed to be, he said, but I know a couple of wrong places I'd give a second try in a heartbeat.

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.