Quotes by Tom Hood

“HEXAGONSnowflakes descend purposefullyor wistfullybut, surrounded by their tiny peers,each is confident they together will soonhide the meadows, driveways, roofs,fences, the stripped gardens.A speck of dust or pollenlofted to the top of the skyencountered a water dropthat in the celestial coldadhered and froze, forming an ice crystalwhich, now weightier thanthe air it floated on,began to waft downwards,adding water particles as it traveled,six spikes or arms creatinga filigree all its own as it passed throughdiffering temperatures and amounts ofdampness. Its delicate whiteintricacy, though, contains an inner spacealso unique. One offers a forest of snowy evergreenswhere, as afternoon light dims,a man wearing a homespun hooded garmentand bent under a sack thrown over a shoulderplods along a footpathwinding uphill between firs and pines.With each step, his breath appears like smokeuntil he and his burden are lost from view,and a chill wind sways the thin twigs of bushesemerging from drifts beside the track.In that flake is preservedan era in which the body endures and welcomesthe simple opposites: icy cold against face skinand eventually a fire’s warmth, sodden feet and, at last,these dried once more, while the eyeregisters an omnipresent starkness”

“I wrapped the duvet underneath me to form a nice little cocoon, and managed to sleep for perhaps another hour or so, during which time I had a very peculiar dream about a hooded man who chased me around Shepherd’s Bush with a sword made out of breakfast.  And then my dog was barking.””

“McClury folded back the rifle’s bipod and stood, disturbing the light covering of snow that lay across his body. His weapon was an Accuracy International L96, a bolt-action rifle made by the Brits. In McClury’s opinion one of the best all-round rifles in the world for this type of work. Precise and powerful but not too big or heavy. He’d used enough of them in the past to qualify his opinion. He wore white Gore-Tex pants, a jacket with a hood, and a white ski mask. The rifle’s furniture had been wrapped in strips of white electrical tape. McClury unbuttoned and unzipped the jacket and threw it off. It was camouflage and protection against the cold but impeded movement. Underneath he wore a black thermal shirt. He felt the chill immediately, but for now he could live with it. He left the white ski mask in place. His hide was a little under five hundred yards away, overlooking the target’s chalet. McClury had been set up just under the crest of a snowy outcrop dotted with trees to hide his silhouette and to make him virtually invisible.””

“Free will may be an illusion...Neuroscientist Bruce Hood explains:Choices...must be the culmination of...genetic inheritance, life experiences, current circumstances do planned goals... we are not aware of these influences because they are unconscious so we feel that the decision has been arrived independently””

“One of the bravest of all public servants has to be the teacher of sixth-grade boys. How they can do their job without wearing a gas mask just doesn’t make sense to me. These are boys who are at their peak of stench-hood and avoid bathing at all costs. They don’t make windows big enough to release all the horrid, prepubescent odors wafting around those desks.””