The bacteria of resentment bred: distance turned to distrust; distrust turned to bitterness; bitterness to hate, which is, after all, a kind of grievous love

— Johnny Rich

The characters act for reasons that they can’t control and, as readers, we have to believe in their motivations, their sense of choice and in the reality of their suffering, even though, deep down, we know it’s all just puppetry on the part of the writer.

— Johnny Rich

The future is certain. It is just not known.

— Johnny Rich

The only simple truth is that there is nothing simple in this complex universe. Everything relates. Everything connects

— Johnny Rich

There’s no such thing as probability," she says, slowly, with minimal movement of her jaw. "Things turn out the way they do.

— Johnny Rich

These are the things you don’t say, even to someone you love.

— Johnny Rich

The silence was pregnant with noise, with muted fury, with questions the father found too disgusting to frame and with answers to which the son was incapable of giving voice.

— Johnny Rich

This pain is comfort. It is the solace of physicality, like a touch.

— Johnny Rich

Those who perpetrate stories must act cruelly.

— Johnny Rich

Time passes. I drift in and out. As if I cease to be, until I remember to exist again.

— Johnny Rich