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We rarely get to prepare ourselves in meadows or on graveled walks; we do it on short notice in places without windows, hospital corridors, rooms like this lounge with its cracked plastic sofa and Cinzano ashtrays, where the cafe curtains cover blank concrete. In rooms like this, with so little time, we prepare our gestures, get them by heart so we can do them when we're frightened in the face of Doom.
Thomas Harris
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on how we often have to confront difficult situations unexpectedly, unprepared in uncomfortable environments.

In Thomas Harris's quote, he emphasizes the essence of facing life's challenges that come upon us suddenly and without preparation. It suggests that within the stark and uninviting settings, such as hospital corridors or lounges with worn-out furniture, we instinctively learn how to respond to fear and uncertainty. The yearning to prepare ourselves for moments of crisis, despite the inadequacies of our surroundings, highlights the resilience of the human spirit when faced with dire circumstances.

Themes

PreparationFearCourageUncertaintyLife

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a speech about dealing with emergencies and the importance of mental preparation.

More from Thomas Harris

It occurred to Dr. Lecter in the moment that with all his knowledge and intrusion, he could never entirely predict her, or own her at all. He could feed the caterpillar, he could whisper through the chrysalis; what hatched out followed its own nature and was beyond him. He wondered if she had the .45 on her leg beneath the gown. Clarice Starling smiled at him then, the cabochons caught the firelight and the monster was lost in self-congratulation at his own exquisite taste and cunning.
Thomas HarrisRead
Spaces devoted to Hannibal Lecter’s earliest years differ from the other archives in being incomplete. Some are static scenes, fragmentary, like painted attic shards held together by blank plaster. Other rooms hold sound and motion, great snakes wrestling and heaving in the dark and lit in flashes. Pleas and screaming fill some places on the grounds where Hannibal himself cannot go. But the corridors do not echo screaming, and there is music if you like.
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I'm doing one of three things: I'm writing. I'm staring out the window. Or I'm writhing on the floor.
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It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.
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Did you ever think, Clarice, why the Philistines don't understand you? It's because you are the answer to Samson's riddle. You are the honey in the lion.
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Shiloh isn’t haunted – men are haunted. Shiloh doesn’t care.
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