Monday, May 22, 2006

It's all about the quotes...

In non-spoilery book-talk, I think I've pinned down the quotes I want to use to open part one, part two, and the epilogue of "Waiting for a Miracle" -- and I'm surprised that I haven't done this already. Finding appropriate quotes has always been one of my favourite book-writing side projects, and yet this one has been quoteless for almost a year.

And then, while I was skim-reading this weekend, I loaded up Leonard Cohen's "The Future" album -- which contains the song "Waiting for the Miracle" from which I kinda stole the title to the novel -- and listened while I read along. And as I listened, I few lines from a few different songs that seemed to hit at what I was going for with the different parts of the book.

And how wonderfully appropriate it would be if I could pull all the quotes from the one album that inspired the title.

Part Tne's quote:
“I lift my glass to the awful truth
Which you cant reveal to the ears of youth
Except to say it isn’t worth a dime”

Part Two's quote:
"Nothing left to do
when you know
that you've been taken
Nothing left to do
when you're begging for a crumb
Nothing left to do
when you've got to go on waiting
waiting for the miracle to come"

And the Epilogue's quote:
"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."

Nothing much to note here, particularly if you haven't read the book -- as most of you visiting haven't. Although you might find this interesting for trivia's sake. Or simply because Cohen's got an undeniable way with words.

1 comment:

elise_on_life said...

Well, all I can say is that the first quote is indeed perfect. I'll let you know what I think of the other two as I progress in my reading. (Thanks for the tip that this entry was "non-spoiling!")