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58a170c The conversations had a nightmare flatness, talking dice spilled in the tube metal chairs, human aggregates disintegrating in cosmic inanity, random events in a dying universe where everything is exactly what it appears to be, and no other relation than juxtaposition is possible. William S. Burroughs
9e59ba0 Fear of death is form of stasis horrors. The dead weight of time. horrors stasis time William S. Burroughs
91f6a67 he asked if i wouldn't like to live completely without problems, say in greece maybe, nice climate, everything provided? i say: "when we find out what we are actually doing and who we actually are, that is the point of living...it may be only a few seconds...a few seconds of significant actions, out of a lifetime..." William S. Burroughs
e728984 They say only love can create, so who the fuck could love up a centipede? He's got more love in him than I got. Now, killing a centipede makes me feel safer - like, one less. William S. Burroughs
da866f7 For John Dillinger In hope he is still alive Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1986 William S. Burroughs
9276315 Your primary desire, says Epictetus, should be your desire not to be frustrated by forming desires you won't be able to fulfill. William B. Irvine
8052f63 It is unrealistc to expect people to see you as you see yourself. Epictetus
cb8d32e She was developing what Mom called a bit of a sarcastic streak. Jeannette Walls
a115e5b That was the thing to remember about all monsters, Dad said: They love to frighten people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run. "All you have to do, Mountain Goat, is show old Demon that you're not afraid." Jeannette Walls
780fc4a Maybe I should have cut him some slack. With his broken wing and lifetime of eating roadkill, he probably had a lot to be ungrateful about. Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature. Jeannette Walls
c9535a7 If at the one moment in your life when the chance of something transcendental is offered to you, if you have this chance to move beyond the surface of things, to understand - and you say, No, maybe not... What then? How do you explain the rest of your life to yourself? How do you pass the time until you die? Do you substitute for that an interest in what - eating? Do you spend the next sixty years trying to be fascinated by the act of breat.. Sebastian Faulks
d772dbd There is nothing more sir, than to love and be loved. Sebastian Faulks
a13f817 Whaddaya mean 'old maids,' ha? The term is 'unclaimed treasure,' buddy, 'unclaimed treasure! Laurie Notaro
64b0dde The more truthful I am with myself and others, the more my conscience is clear and tranquil. Thus, I can more thoroughly and unequivocally inhabit the present moment and accept everything that happens without fear, knowing that what goes around comes around (the law of karma). Ethical morality and self-discipline represent the good ground, or stable basis. Mindful awareness is the skillful and efficacious grow-path, or way. Wisdom and compa.. Lama Surya Das
b87ab81 But compassion is a deeper thing that waits beyond the tension of choosing sides. Compassion, in practice, does not require us to give up the truth of what we feel or the truth of our reality. Nor does it allow us to minimize the humanity of those who hurt us. Rather, we are asked to know ourselves enough that we can stay open to the truth of others, even when their truth or their inability to live up to their truth has hurt us. Mark Nepo
5428459 Sometimes the simplest and best use of our will is to drop it all and just walk out from under everything that is covering us, even if only for an hour or so--just walk out from under the webs we've spun, the tasks we've assumed, the problems we have to solve. They'll be there when we get back, and maybe some of them will fall apart without our worry to hold them up. Mark Nepo
8526ae3 In a world in which success was the only virtue, he had resigned himself to failure. Joseph Heller
db09db0 After he made up his mind to spend the rest of the war in the hospital, Yossarian wrote letters to everyone he knew saying that he was in the hospital but never mentioning why. One day he had a better idea. To everyone he knew he wrote that he was going on a very dangerous mission. "They asked for volunteers. It's very dangerous, but someone has to do it. I'll write you the instant I get back." And he had not written anyone since." Joseph Heller
2b43653 The frog is almost five hundred million years old. Could you really say with much certainty that America, with all its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man that is second to none, and with its standard of living that is highest in the world, will last as long as...the frog? Joseph Heller
ac3887c Now you've given them hope, and they're unhappy. So the blame is all yours. Joseph Heller
47c39fd Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was. Joseph Heller
03a4216 And entertainment has nothing to do with reality. Entertainment is antithetical to reality. Michael Crichton
1c4fb07 It is especially difficult for modern people to conceive that our modern, scientific age might not be an improvement over the prescientific period. Michael Crichton
faf00c3 Increasingly, the mathematics will demand the courage to face its implications. Michael Crichton
461a814 There's a lot of things wrong with this country, but one of the few things still right with it is that a man can steer clear of the organized bullshit if he really wants to. It's a goddamned luxury, and if I were you, I'd take advantage of it while you can. america independence self Hunter S. Thompson
63613c9 All life is theatre,' he said. 'We are all actors, you and I, in a play which nobody wrote and which nobody will see. We have no audience but ourselves.... philosophical theater theatre Susan Cooper
de4398f Their conversation is like a gently wicked dance: sound meets sound, curtsies, shimmies, and retires. Another sound enters but is upstaged by still another: the two circle each other and stop. Sometimes their words move in lofty spirals; other times they take strident leaps, and all of it is punctuated with warm-pulsed laughter--like the throb of a heart made of jelly. The edge, the curl, the thrust of their emotions is always clear to Frie.. Toni Morrison
eae43c4 I used to think to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place--the picture of it--stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don't think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or.. Toni Morrison
f22a0de They had stared at her with great uncomprehending eyes. Eyes that questioned nothing and asked everything. Unblinking and unabashed, they stared up at her. The end of the world lay in their eyes, and the beginning, and all the waste in bewteen. Toni Morrison
b320839 So when I think of autumn, I think of somebody with hands who does not want me to die. Toni Morrison
46dff2e The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again. Barbara W. Tuchman
4196d70 In individuals as in nations, contentment is silent, which tends to unbalance the historical record. historical-record Barbara W. Tuchman
ada1ab8 It's never too late with truth. It stands outside time. truth Karen Kingsbury
de550e6 A man without hands came to the door to sell me a photograph of my house. Except for the chrome hooks, he was an ordinary-looking man of fifty or so. hooks no-hands viewfinder Raymond Carver
8f3f31b You have to have been in love to write poetry. Raymond Carver
c93cfc3 If she come, I be happy. If she don't, I be content. Alice Walker The Color Purple
41d7cba Ninety per cent of life is a nightmare, do you think I am going to get it rounded up to hundred per cent? Saul Bellow
f71114a Brother raises a hand against brother and son against father (how terrible!) and the father also against son. And moreover it is a continuity-matter, for if the father did not strike the son, they would not be alike. It is done to perpetuate similarity. Oh, Henderson, man cannot keep still under the blows.... A hit B? B hit C?--we have not enough alphabet to cover the condition. A brave man will try to make the evil stop with him. He shall .. evil inhumanity man-s-inhumanity-to-man Saul Bellow
d3205c8 an artist is a person first. He is an individual. If there is no person, there is no artist. Chaim Potok
442f92d If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll e flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days. Sylvia Plath
c809f13 Tomorrow is another day toward death. Sylvia Plath
574c80a The door of the novel, like the door of the poem, also shuts. But not so fast, nor with such manic, unanswerable finality. Sylvia Plath
55c3c4a In Europe the rich are refined enough to act as if they're not wealthy. That is how civilized people behave. If you ask me, being cultured and civilized is not about everyone being free and equal; it's about everyone being refined enough to act as if they were. Then no one has to feel guilty. culture equality guilt refinement rich wealthy Orhan Pamuk
e6bbb58 Let me first state forthright that contrary to what we've often read in books and heard from preachers, when you are a woman, you don't feel like the Devil. devil preachers woman Orhan Pamuk