Toby Barlow

“Each dog marks a section of our lives, and in the end, we feed them to the dark, burying them there while we carry on.”

“You either trust or you distrust coincidence. It 's either small doses of magic pulling you to your appointed destiny or the devil trying to lead you down to the thorns.”

“Luck is stupid as a cow and blind as a bat.”

“Knowing someone isn't coming backdoesn't mean you ever stop waiting”

“Call him Judas if you wantbut he did it for reasonsmuch older than silver.”

“The theory is simple.Every boy, every man, is reallya bit of a golden retrieveror a big chocolate Lab.Watch any man's eyesat the bounce of a ball.His head tilts slightly sideways, just a hair,as a primitive focuscomes to life.”

“Everyone is always looking in the wrong direction,we worry about our lovers while losing our jobswe stress out about cancer while our children run awaywe ponder the stars while burning the earth.Lark used to say the buller we're running fromis almost never the one that hits us.”

“She would say 'Bucket moon'he would answer 'Ladle moon.'Night after night sky revealed abitten moon, a butcher's moon,an apple moon, a thief's moon,a rabbit---'Rabbit moon?''Don't you see it?''I used to chase rabbits,' she had said,her voice sweet and tired.”

“Blood, fat, marrow, grease, sinew, muscle, guts, hide, fur, sleepThey may twitch in their dreams when they sleepbut they sleep deep”

“The bullet we're running from is almost never the one that hits us.”

“As she stared at the ceiling that first nighther body softly falling back into itself,she thought of how we dream of journeyingon spaceships to other universes, other worlds,but really, for the forever,we're stuck here on the dirt andthe only time we will travel anywhere truly unknowableis when we slip into the skin of another,venturing into their mysteries,always hoping fora safe landing.”

“That's what love does/ It chases the dragons away/ before their claws can sink in.”

“Yes, liquor is the thin white coat of paint you wash over the cracks in your foundation. Makes any rotten house livable for a few hours. Sometimes days.”

“You can’t own something unless you can swallow it”

“The secret must stay and- according to scientists- the love will live. The heart is quite comfortable with secrets. After all, its home is a dark wet place tucked in among all the other organs who aren't talking either.”

“he knows that it's impossible to tell a wolffrom a man ifhe keeps his chin upand his teeth clean.”

“Like so much of the trouble in the worldit ends simply with exhaustion.”

“And were you cornered by her,eye to eye,you would see thatthere are still some watchful creatureswhose essence lies unbound by words.There is still a wilderness.”

“Days grow hotter and life grows shorter.Time is somehow running out.She flips her pillowso she won't have to sleep on her tears.”

“Some things don't pass, the injuries don't heal they merely find a place in our guts and in our bones where they fitfully rest, tossing and turning between our knuckles and ribs waiting to wake as the shadows grow long.”

“The heart is a bloody thing. ”