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Morning wiping sleepy dust from eyes, Balthazar asked nannie why does everyone cry. Because your father has gone away. Where. To where people go. Where do they go. They pass away. Where. To be with God. Why. Because they are dead. What is dead. Dead is when your heart grows cold. Will my heart ever grow cold. Yes God love you little boy.

— J. P. Donleavy The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B (1968)

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More quotes by J. P. Donleavy

"Mr Dangerfield, why don't you believe in hell and things like that?"
"Hell is for poor people."

The Ginger Man (1955)

They say there is good in everyone. If you just give them a chance. And a good boot in the arse.

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"I swim back to the shores of privilege out of the sea of the dispossessed."

The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B (1968)

In a big bowl full of hatred can you ever find a spoonful of love.

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Reach up to put a hand to some dream you kept awake. Now you take it like a red ripe apple and polish quietly up and down one's sleeve.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: J. P. Donleavy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.