15 Lasting Quotes From The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
Here are 15 lasting quotes from The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. In this post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son and their fight for survival, there are plenty of quotable moments.
Published on September 26, 2006, The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy, the author of No Country for Old Men, All the Pretty Horses, and Blood Meridian. It is a survival story about a father and son who travel south, because the winters have grown too cold.
They live in a world that is nearly devoid of life (no birds, fish, or other living animals) and has broken down all social norms for the few people still living. However, the father and son protagonists in this novel fight to stay good and alive at the same time as they make their way to the coast.
Here are 15 quotes from Cormac McCarthy's The Road that cover survival, dreams, promises, and more.
15 lasting quotes from The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
"He tried to think of something to say but he could not. He'd had this feeling before, beyond the numbness and dull despair."
"I dont want anybody talking about me. To say where I was or what I said when I was there."
"If you break little promises you'll break big ones."
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"Maybe he understood for the first time that to the boy he was himself an alien. A being from a planet that no longer existed."
"Maybe you should always be on the lookout. If trouble comes when you least expect it then maybe the thing to do is to always expect it."
"My job is to take care of you."
"People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didnt believe in that. Tomorrow wasnt getting ready for them. It didnt even know they were there."
"Some part of him always wished it to be over."
"The man could hear him playing. A formless music for the age to come. Or perhaps the last music on earth called up from out of the ashes of its ruin."
"The right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death."
"There was a good chance they would die in the mountains and that would be that."
"This is what the good guys do. They keep trying."
"We're not survivors. We're the walking dead in a horror film."
"When we're all gone at last there'll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He'll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it to."
"Where you've nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them."
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
