Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The contours of the coming disaster expanded to include the deaths of all present.
I have this tendency to take a little bit of questionable knowledge and riff on it.
Fiction is open to whoever comes in the door, as long as you come in energetically.
I see that being looked at askance as a form of elitism now, which is really scary.
I'm a big fan of the Russians: Isaac Babel is just an exquisite line-to-line stylist.
We have not been energetic enough - white people haven't - in pursuing racial equity.
With nonfiction, I go in trying to be really honest about what my preconceptions are.
I think that fiction has a part to play in urging us, as a species, toward compassion.
What evil does first in the world, maybe, is distract us from our pursuit of goodness.
If you haven't read you don't have the voice. The lack of voice eliminates experience.
I'm always nice when I do drugs. But, you know, I'm nicer on the drug called "writing."
There are books that I read years ago that enlivened things in me that haven't died yet.
The internet kind of feels like happiness sometimes, however. It feels like stimulation.
My heart goes out to him. Sort of. Because empathy depends on how you've spent your day.
Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible.
Even the written history [of Abraham Lincoln's times] is poorly understood by most people.
Toni Morrison seems to have a lot of faith in people - that's what I mean by gentle power.
It's so ironic that you often hear these right-wing people talking about the Constitution.
A person supporting [Donald]Trump likes Trump. And I think they would say the same about me.
Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to.
I always describe writing a story as throwing bowling pins in the air and then catching them.
I don't feel like I have the intelligence to really inhabit a consistently high level of prose.
My heartfelt wish for you: as you get older, your self will diminish and you will grow in love.
For me, things were either very sullied or very pure, very controlled or very under-controlled.
We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish.
Social media sometimes feels like a vehicle for one-dimensional sniping, more than true criticism.
A country doesn't need a businessman to run it: it needs a heartful, worldly, compassionate leader.
So, good news/bad news: good news that I'm progressing; bad news that life is short and art is long.
I'm very happy - if I can do even a little bit of work to get the short story out more, I'm thrilled.
Our first responsibility in all things is to preserve our goodness of heart - then and only then act.
Working with language is a means by which we can identify the bullshit within ourselves (and others).
I actually believe that a lot of what people call originality has to do with persistence in the craft.
Life is short, very short, and what are we doing here if not trying to become more generous and loving?
Monologues, in some ways, are the most scientific descriptions of consciousness and even of gatherings.
That seems to be the definition of 'novel' for me: a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief.
I've always wanted to write energetic, atypical sentences, i.e., sentences that were not normal or bland.
Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.
The word 'funny' is a bit like the word 'love' - we don't have enough words to describe the many varieties.
If you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. If you do not bring it forth, it will destroy you.
In fact unrestrained capitalism is quite cruel and the cost is on the individual human, on his or her grace.
What's really baffling to me is the way that the technology has risen up to help us become more materialistic.
Why were we put here, so inclined to love, when end of our story = death? That harsh. That cruel. Do not like.
Success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it... Err in the direction of kindness.
So here's something I know to be true, although it's a little corny, and I don't quite know what to do with it.
In a certain way, we're always toggling back and forth between the absolute and the relative, if that makes sense.
Realism is to fiction what gravity is to walking: a confinement that allows dancing under the right circumstances.
I have finally realized that, you know, it's not a given that my lifespan will accommodate my writing aspirations.
I've seen time and time again the way that the process of trying to say something dignifies and improves a person.
I like [Barak] Obama. I like him. So how far does rationality help to persuade anybody? You know, I'm not so sure.
If you could press a button and your ego investment was less, the toothache would be less. Or less tragic at least.