Top 76 quotes by Dennis Lehane

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Happiness doesn't lie in conspicuous consumption and the relentless amassing of useless crap. Happiness lies in the person sitting beside you and your ability to talk to them. Happiness is clear-headed human interaction and empathy. Happiness is home. And home is not a house-home is a mythological conceit. It is a state of mind. A place of communion and unconditional love. It is where, when you cross its threshold, you finally feel at peace.
Dennis Lehane

Lying , Home , Unconditional Love

Happiness doesn't lie in conspicuous consumption and the relentless amassing of useless crap. Happiness lies in the person sitting beside you and your ability to talk to them. Happiness is clear-headed human interaction and empathy. Happiness is home. And home is not a house-home is a mythological conceit. It is a state of mind. A place of communion and unconditional love. It is where, when you cross its threshold, you finally feel at peace.
Dennis Lehane

Lying , Home , Unconditional Love

She smiled darkly and shook her head. 'I'm not crazy. I'm not. Of course what else would a crazy person claim? That's the Kafkaesque genius of it all. If you're not crazy but people have told the world you are, then all your protests to the contrary just underscore their point. Do you see what I'm saying?
Dennis Lehane

People , Genius , Crazy

There's something ugly about the flawless.
Dennis Lehane

Ugly , Flawless

He wanted to ask her what sound a heart made when it broke from pleasure, when just the sight of someone filled you the way food, blood, and air never could, when you felt as if you'd been born for only one moment and this, for whatever reason, was it.
Dennis Lehane

Heart , Love , Sight

Narrative becomes the way you make sense of chaos. That's how you focus the world. It's the only reason you should ever try this writing job.
Dennis Lehane

Jobs , Writing , Focus

I have a lot of rage about things that didn't happen to me, tied up with watching an immigrant, working-class father struggle to make his way through the world - and seeing how society was modeled to keep him in his place.
Dennis Lehane

Class , Struggle , Father

It's hard to close the door on optimistic expectations when you love someone.
Dennis Lehane

Dennis Lehane (2011). “A Drink Before The War”, p.185, Random House

Doors , Expectations , Optimistic

Happiness comes in moments, & then it's gone until the next time. Could be years. But sadness settles it.
Dennis Lehane

Years , Gone , Sadness

In Greek tragedy, they fall from great heights. In noir, they fall from the curb.
Dennis Lehane

Fall , Tragedy , Greek

There are so many more important things to worry about than how you're perceived by strangers.
Dennis Lehane

Important , Worry , Self Esteem

Chuck said, “Hey. How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” Cawley looked over at him. “I’ll bite. How many?” “Fish,” Chuck said and let loose a bright bark of a laugh.
Dennis Lehane

Doe , Laughing , Hey

The foundation of your life is luck. Hard work and talent make up the difference.
Dennis Lehane

Differences , Hard Work , Luck

There are threads in our lives. You pull one, and everything else gets affected.
Dennis Lehane

Dennis Lehane (2010). “Mystic River”, Hachette UK

Our Lives , Affected , Thread

It had occurred to Sean once - on a bender about ten years before with some buddies, Sean and a bloodstream full of bourbon turning philosophical - that maybe they HAD gotten in that car. All three of them. And what they now thought of as their life was just a dream state. That all three of them were, in reality, still eleven-year-old boys trapped in some cellar, imagining what they'd become if they ever escaped and grew up.
Dennis Lehane

Philosophical , Dream , Boys