Long Way Down Quotes

“I think she hoped her voice would somehow keep him alive.”

“ANOTHER THING ABOUT THE RULES. They weren’t meant to be broken. They were meant for the broken to follow.”

“I wrapped my fingers around the grip, placing them over Shawn’s prints like little brother holding big brother’s hand again, walking me to the store, teaching me how to do a Penny Drop.”

“When they said you were gone, I cried all night, I confessed. And the next morning, over hard-boiled eggs and sugar cereal, Shawn taught me Rule Number One— no crying.”

“He knew them like I knew them. Passed to him. Passed them to his little brother. Passed to my older brother. Passed to me. The Rules have always ruled. Past present future forever.”

“Get down with somebody or get beat down by somebody.”

“Fly. Like Shawn. Foreshadowing the flash.”

“And even though his face was wet with tears he wasn’t supposed to cry when he was alive, I couldn’t see him as anything less than my brother, my favorite, my only.”

“The worst part, the absolute worst part, is the constant slipping of your tongue into the new empty space, where you know a tooth supposed to be but a’int no more.”

“The Rules are the rules.”