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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 7711172 | I hope you'll never know how sadness can twist your heart, and make you a stranger to yourself. | Amanda Eyre Ward | ||
| 58e7829 | It was a place you could make into a home if your home hadn't worked out. | home | Amanda Eyre Ward | |
| 42a7b8c | But you never feel things so deeply--so strongly--as you do in high school. You | Amanda Eyre Ward | ||
| 51ad380 | genetic workup showed I had a BRCA1 mutation, I chose to undergo chemo and have my breasts removed. (That was an aggressive course of action, and I had no regrets. My | Amanda Eyre Ward | ||
| 580d1e9 | My mother told me that when Jane and I were born, all her dreams had come true. I | Amanda Eyre Ward | ||
| 1a2110c | No matter how much I pushed, she refused to have the genetic screening that could save her life. I | Amanda Eyre Ward | ||
| 13eafd3 | It's okay," I said, holding her, starting to cry myself. "It's not okay," said Jane. "But it's the way it is." | Amanda Eyre Ward | ||
| 133b810 | I was surrounded by people. A hundred men, some women, my brother, Ernesto. No one did anything as the man pulled my pants down. No one intervened--not even God--as | Amanda Eyre Ward | ||
| 1fba25b | Holy smokes, now I've cooked some bigos! | Bigos | ||
| c7eb83b | Life was rearranging itself; bulging in places, fraying in spots. Sometimes leaving holes big enough to see through, or even step through, to somewhere else. | Lynne Rae Perkins | ||
| f94d147 | The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less. | Bigotry | ||
| 4fae85a | qr@ ktb lyst mTbq@ tmman lqr@ shsh@, mhm kn lnS. | Alberto Manguel | ||
| b429353 | lqr@ mthl ltnfs, nh wZyf@ Hyty@ 'ssy@. | Alberto Manguel | ||
| bac8af2 | He's indifferent.' 'I don't think he's indifferent. He fucks well enough. Not the best I've ever seen.' 'He can't tell us apart.' 'Oh I don't think that's true. He asked me when my birthday was.' 'What'd you tell him?' 'I told him. July third.' 'Well what does that prove?' 'He's thoughtful. He can tell one from another. He's interested in us as individuals.' 'Maybe it's just a facade. Maybe he just knows what to do to make us think he cares.. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| c0f67dc | He is mad about being small when you were big, but no, that's not it, he is mad about being helpless when you were powerful, but no, not that either, he is mad about being contingent when you were necessary, not quite it, he is insane because when he loved you, you didn't notice. DONALD BARTHELME, | Jon Krakauer | ||
| 1114714 | A hundred canes shattered in the sun, like a load of antihistamines falling out of an airplane. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 83cd231 | It is true that I am part of the laughing-aristocrat structure, Charles said. I don't mean I am one of them. I mean I am their creature. They hold me in thrall. Laughing aristocrats who invented the cost-plus contract . . . Laughing aristocrats who invented the real estate broker . . . Laughing aristocrats who invented Formica . . . Laughing aristocrats wiping their surfaces clean with a damp cloth . . . Charles poured himself another brill.. | the-struggle | Donald Barthelme | |
| f898017 | I noticed that he was an Irish setter, rust-colored. He noticed that I was a Welsh sculptor, buff-colored (no, really, what did he notice? how does he think?) I reflected that he was probably a nice dog from a good home (bourgeois dog) but with certain unfortunate habits like jumping on people from high windows (rationalization: he is a member of the television generation and thus -) | perspective | Donald Barthelme | |
| fdd5a75 | There were reactions. Some people found the balloon 'interesting'. As a response this seemed inadequate to the immensity of the balloon, the suddenness of its appearance over the city; on the other hand, in the absence of hysteria or other societally-induced anxiety, it must be judged a calm, 'mature' one. There was a certain amount of initial argumentation about the 'meaning' of the balloon; this subsided, because we have learned not to in.. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 7572903 | What you don't understand is, it's like somebody walks up to you and says, I have a battleship I can't use, would you like to have a battleship. And you say, yes yes, I've never had a battleship, I've always wanted one. And he says, it has four sixteen-inch guns forward, and a catapult for launching scout planes. And you say, I've always wanted to launch scout planes. And he says, it's yours, and then you have this battleship. And then you .. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| f19672e | 97. I approached the symbol, with its layers of meaning, but when I touched it, it changed into only a beautiful princess. 98. I threw the beautiful princess headfirst down the mountain to my acquaintances. 99. Who could be relied upon to deal with her. | symbolism | Donald Barthelme | |
| ead42da | His fingertips lightly and unintentionally grazed her face and her ears, and Debbie's don't-get-in-trouble self felt itself making room for her alert-alert-something-new-is-happening self. | romance teenage-love | Lynne Rae Perkins | |
| 7b10f40 | So, this being the content of your happy hour, you decide to break your iron-clad rule, that rule of rules, and have eleven drinks instead of the modest nine with which you had been wont to stave off the song of twilight, when the lights are low, and the flickering shadows, etc., etc. But, opening the refrigerator, you discover that the slovely bitch has failed to fill up the ice trays so there is no more ice for your tenth and eleventh slo.. | happy-hour | Donald Barthelme | |
| 98b6537 | Clean your face," I said to the child. "It's dirty." "It's not," the child said. "By God it is," I said, "filth adheres in ine areas which I shall enumerate." "That is because of the dough," the child said. "We were taking death masks." "Dough!" I exclaimed, shocked at the idea that the child had wasted flour and water and no doubt paper too in this lightsome pastime, taking death masks. "Death!" I exclaimed for added emphasis. "What do you.. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 38ac09c | New artists have been obtained. These do not object to, and indeed argue enthusiastically for, the rationalization process. Production is up. Quality-control devices have been installed at those points where the interests of artists and audiences intersect. Shipping and distribution have been improved out of all recognition. (It is in this area, they say in Paraguay, that traditional practices were most blameworthy.) The rationalized art is.. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| ff3be11 | It seemed to proclaim itself a mystery, but one there was no point in solving - an ongoing low-grade mystery. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| aa6fd11 | The first thing I did was make a mistake. I thought I had understood capitalism, but what I had done was assume an attitude -melancholy sadness- toward it. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 10441ec | It is a curiosity of writing about angels that, very often, one turns out to be writing about men. | writing | Donald Barthelme | |
| 3c77d7f | Queremos que el Padre Muerto este muerto. Nos sentamos con los ojos llenos de lagrimas y deseamos que el Padre Muerto este muerto... y entretanto hacemos cosas asombrosas con las manos. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| fee473b | I visit my assistant mistress. "Well, Azalea," I say, sitting in the best chair, "what has happened to you since my last visit?" Azalea tells me what happened to her. She has covered a sofa, and written a novel. Jack has behaved badly. Roger has lost his job (replaced by an electric eye). Gigi's children are in the hospital being detoxified, all three. Azalea herself is dying of love. I stroke her buttocks, which are perfection, if you can .. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| afb9d8d | Truth, as Bergson knew, is a hard apple, whether one is throwing it or catching it. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| c234aa8 | Smoke, rain, abulia. What can the concerned citizen do to fight the rise of capitalism, in his own community? Study of the tides of conflict and power in a system in which there is structural inequality is an important task. A knowledge of European intellectual history since 1789 provides a useful background. Information theory offers interesting new possibilities. Passion is helpful, especially those types of passion which are non licit. D.. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 2e94f26 | The trouble with capturing one is that that original gesture is almost impossible to equal or improve upon. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 47bf231 | I myself," said Gibbon, "am slightly underdone in the personal worthlessness line. It was Papa's fault. He used no irony. The communications mix offered by the parent to the child is as you know twelve percent do this, eighty-two percent don't do that, and six percent huggles and endearments. That is standard. Now, to avoid boring himself or herself to death during this monition the parent enlivens the discourse with wit, usually irony of t.. | parenting | Donald Barthelme | |
| 03954b4 | They were heading I judged for the Sixth Precinct. Had I had the black hat with me, and sufficient men and horses and lariats and .30-30s, and popular support from the masses and a workable revolutionary ideology and/or a viable myth pattern, I would have rescued them. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 2c75479 | The mind carries you with it, away from what you are supposed to do, toward things that cannot be explained rationally, toward difficulty, lack of clarity, late-afternoon light. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 98a04cc | Dear Francesca, tell me, is this a succesful party, in your view? Is this the best we can do? I know that you have always wanted to meet Kong; now that you have met him and he has said whatever he has said to you (I saw you smiling), can we go home? I mean you to your home, me to my home, all these others to their own homes, cells, cages? I am feeling a little ragged. What made us think that we could escape things like bankruptcy, alcoholis.. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 6322f95 | A week later she is still with me. She is departing by degrees. If I tore her hair out, no one but me would love her. But she don't want me to tear her hair out. I wear different shirts for her: red, orange, silver. We hold hand through the night. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 180da5a | How old are you Hogo." "Thirty-five Jane. A not unpleasant age to be." "You don't mind then. That you are not young." "It has its buggy aspects as what does not?" "You don't mind then that you are sagging in the direction of death." "No, Jane." | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 41024a4 | Is that true," I asked, "that song?" "It is a metaphor," said Mrs. Davis, "it has metaphorical truth." "And the end of the mechanical age," I said, "is that a metaphor?" "The end of the mechanical age," said Mrs. Davis, "is in my judgment an actuality straining to become a metaphor. One must wish it luck, I suppose. One must cheer it on. Intellectual rigor demands that we give these damned metaphors every chance, even if they are inimical t.. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| 297d7d4 | Miss Mandible wants to make love to me but she hesitates because I am officially a child; I am, according to the records, according to the gradebook on her desk, according to the card index in the principal's office, eleven years old. There is a misconception here, one that I haven't quite managed to get cleared up yet. I am in fact thirty-five, I've been in the Army, I am six feet one, I have hair in the appropriate places, my voice is a b.. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| bb2e33d | Then Wanda proposed a health. "Health to abandoned wives!" she said. "Well now," I said. "'Abandoned,' that's a little strong." "Pushed out, jettisoned, abjured, thrown away," she said. "I remember," I said, "a degree of mutuality, in our parting." "And when guests came," she said, "you always made me sit in the kitchen." "I thought you liked it in the kitchen," I said. "You were forever telling me to get out of the bloody kitchen." "And wh.. | Donald Barthelme | ||
| ee160d2 | We could unleash all this technology at once. You can imagine what would happen then. But that's not the interesting thing." "What is the interesting thing?" "The interesting thing is that we have a moral sense. It is on punched cards, perhaps the most advanced and sensitive moral sense the world has ever known." "Because it is on punched cards?" "It considers all considerations in endless and subtle detail," he said. "It even quibbles... | war | Donald Barthelme | |
| 04713e1 | Be like Sindbad. Venture forth! Embosom the waves, let your shoes be sucked from your feet and your very trousers enticed by the frothing deep. The ambiguous sea awaits, I told them, marry it! There's nothing out there, they said. Wrong, I said, absolutely wrong. There are waltzes, sword canes, and sea wrack dazzling to the eyes. | carpe-diem courage curiosity cynicism life living teaching teachings teenagers | Donald Barthelme |