John Darnielle Quotes

It was a natural process, because when we go to the ring we are human beings, but once you feel the punches and the competition that's when the beast comes out and takes hold of us.

Boxing brings out my aggressive instinct, not necessarily a killer instinct.

When you're in a fight, and you get hit, it hurts. And as you get older, you begin to take on the aches and the bruises of doing that.

Fighting has been a part of my life for my entire existence.

I don't mind getting punched in the face. It kind of wakes me up and gets me excited.

Each step is more difficult than the last; the heaviness fills me and turns my limbs to stone. You must hurt or be hurt.

My friend taught me this one. You take the heel of your hand, you can shove someone's nose right through their brain. I can't even watch someone blow their nose. If I'm in a fight, I'm not gonna be shoving or poking, I'm gonna be running or begging - that's my two choices, right there.

I was hittin' him with body punches and I hurt him. Actually he was cryin' in there, makin' woman gestures like

I forgot how it feel like to have the top of my foot hurt so bad from kicking people on the face.

I can remember a couple of real fights when I ran. Because they were kinda dangerous.

When a guy has his ego hurt, he's liable to jump into a fight he doesn't need to have.

I like to feel like you can bite my paintings. Not to eat them, to hurt them. I like to feel like I'm painting with my teeth.

Maxims in times of danger are useless, experience is incommunicable. The knotted strands of life, desire, assumptions, and moral codes cannot be unsnarled; they can only be cut, which is what happens when an air raid occurs, with a silencing fortissimo like the finale of a Beethoven symphony.

Some day, my son, you are going to learn that the two greatest joys of being a man are beating the hell out of someone and getting the hell beaten out of you, good night.

Born down in a dead man's town, The first kick I took was when I hit the ground, You end up like a dog that's been beat too much, Till you spend half your life just covering up...

Life ain't fair. It ain't. Not never. It's pointless and stupid and there's only suffering and pain and people who want to hurt you. You can't love nothing or no one cuz it'll all be taken away or ruined and you'll be left alone and constantly having to fight, constantly having to run just to stay alive.

Everything was simple, physical, painful, exalting. The world consisted of the four elements - land and water, firepower and distancing air.

I'm scared every time I go into the ring, but it's how you handle it. What you have to do is plant your feet, bite down on your mouthpiece and say, 'Let's go.'

When you're working through the [fight] scenes, you're working on such adrenalin. And then, later, you're like, "Oh, god, my back hurts. Where did that come from?" Your entire arm can be bruised up, but you don't even think about it while you're working.

Everything I know and I am and I have seen felt done past present past now then before now seen felt done hurt felt focus into a something beyond words beyond beyond beyond and it speaks now and it says. Stay. Fight. Live. Take it.

The hurt is not enough: I long for weight and strength. To feel the earth as rough to all my length

There are no pure styles of karate. Purity comes only when pure knuckles meet pure flesh, no matter who delivers or receives.

You can run I will chase you. You can hide I will find you. We're gonna fight and I'm gonna hurt you.

He snorted and hit me in the solar plexus. I bent over and took hold of the room with both hands and spun it. When I had it nicely spinning I gave it a full swing and hit myself on the back of the head with the floor.

The screams of a hurt woman were indistinguishable from everyday traffic.