“Come back to me, Tessa. Henry said that perhaps, since you had touched the soul of an angel, that you dream of Heaven now, of fields of angels and flowers of fire. Perhaps you are happy in those dreams. But I ask this out of pure selfishness. Come back to me. For I cannot bear to lose all my heart.”
“I don t wonder anymore what I ll tell God when I go to heaven when we sit in the chairs under the tree, outside the city........I ll tell these things to God, and he ll laugh, I think and he ll remind me of the parts I forgot, the parts that were his favorite. We ll sit and remember my story together, and then he ll stand and put his arms around me and say, well done, and that he liked my story. And my soul won t be thirsty anymore. Finally he ll turn and we ll walk toward the city, a city he will have spoken into existence a city built in a place where once there d been nothing. ”
“The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here is the place to have the experience.”
“He meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn t live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.... We have to be all those difficult things like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we ve got to study and think and work hard, all of us, in all our different worlds, and then we ll build... The Republic of Heaven.”
“It s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world.”
“If life was a dream, then dying must be the moment when you woke up. It was so simple it must be true. You died, the dream was over, you woke up. That s what people meant when they talked about going to heaven. It was like waking up.”
“Belize: Hell or heaven? [Roy indicates Heaven through a glance] Belize: Like San Francisco. Roy Cohn: A city. Good. I was worried... it d be a garden. I hate that shit. Belize: Mmmm. Big city. Overgrown with weeds, but flowering weeds. On every corner a wrecking crew and something new and crooked going up catty corner to that. Windows missing in every edifice like broken teeth, fierce gusts of gritty wind, and a gray high sky full of ravens. Roy Cohn: Isaiah. Belize: Prophet birds, Roy. Piles of trash, but lapidary like rubies and obsidian, and diamond-colored cowspit streamers in the wind. And voting booths. Roy Cohn: And a dragon atop a golden horde. Belize: And everyone in Balencia gowns with red corsages, and big dance palaces full of music and lights and racial impurity and gender confusion. And all the deities are creole, mulatto, brown as the mouths of rivers. Race, taste and history finally overcome. And you ain t there. Roy Cohn: And Heaven? Belize: That was Heaven, Roy.”
“No. Don t never go looking for love girl. Just wait. It ll come. Like the rain fallin from the heaven, it ll come. Just don t never give up on love.”
“Let people embrace their elected god or let them create one if they feel inspired. In case some want to share, it may be fun but if they don’t fancy the concept, they should be free to recant. (“Is Heaven a place in the sky?”)”
“Enlightenment is not a goal to be attained, it is a state-of-being to be regained.”
“Hill House, she thought, You re as hard to get into as heaven.”
“I can see Richard Wagner standing at the gates of heaven. You have to let me in, he says. I wrote Parsifal. It has to do with the Grail, Christ, suffering, pity and healing. Right? And they answer, Well, we read it and it makes no sense. SLAM.”
“Heaven, such as it is, is right here on earth. Behold: my revelation: I stand at the door in the morning, and lo, there is a newspaper, in sight like unto an emerald. And holy, holy, holy is the coffee, which was, and is, and is to come. And hark, I hear the voice of an angel round about the radio saying, Since my baby left me I found a new place to dwell. And lo, after this I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, of shoes. And after these things I will hasten unto a taxicab and to a theater, where a ticket will be given unto me, and lo, it will be a matinee, and a film that doeth great wonders. And when it is finished, the heavens will open, and out will cometh a rain fragrant as myrrh, and yea, I have an umbrella.”
“I hoped he d take his dog and drive down to the ocean. I hoped there was still time. I pictured him sitting on the gray rocks with the waves crashing and spraying white foam. Maybe he d hear something in the roar of the ocean, feel some limitless power, believe that there s something greater. Something more. Maybe his heaven was at the coast, with a dog s head in his lap, with nothing but water and depth from there to the horizon. -Delaney”
“I suppose in about fortnight we shall be told that he has been seen in San Francisco. It is an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city, and possess all the attractions of the next world.”
“From a human point of view, out bodily existence is a fairytale. At any rate, to the inhabitants of the human world, heaven and the next world are both nothing but fables.”
“They don t live here. They live in Heaven. Where s that? I don t know, I said. Enos says it s right here, on this side of the wall, but I never saw an angel over here. Kuba says it s in Russia. Olek says Washington America. What s Washington America? Enos says it s a place with no wall and no lice and lots of potatoes.”