Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.
Surely being a Professional Beauty - let alone an ageing one - is one of the most insecure and doomed careers imaginable.
Having 'best friends' is - at least for me - as outdated and small-minded a concept as the idea of 'Sunday best clothes.'
A history of literature, unlike history as such, ought to list only victories, for its defeats are no victory for anyone.
'Without the help of mathematics,' the wise man continued, 'the art could not advance and all the sciences would perish.'
To no kind of begging are people so averse, as to begging pardon; that is, when there is any serious ground for doing so.
Ybon was the one who suggested calling the wait something else. Yeah, like what? Maybe, she said, you could call it life.
When the creative impulse sweeps over you, grab it. You grab it and honor it and use it, because momentum is a rare gift.
That's exactly why nature always trumps gardens. Gardens are just reality pruned of chaos. What doesn't work you rip out.
So he's like a human compass? As far as superpowers go, that's pretty lame. You're like the Caster equivalent of Aquaman.
An artist should make concessions to the listener. That is why Bruckner dedicated one of his symphonies to the Good Lord.
Certainly I had a really terrible time with 'Emotionally Weird.' When I finished it, I thought, 'I can't write any more.'
Rats have a sense of humor. Rats, in fact think the world is very funny. And they are right, dear reader. They are right.
I like going to schools and telling classes that when I was a child, I failed every "will this kid become a writer" test.
So much of writing is like walking down a dark hallway with your arms out in front of you. You bump into a lot of things.
The nonfiction novel or literary memoir as authored by women is usually given a much harder time in mainstream criticism.
Most men have always wanted as much as they could get; and possession has always blunted the fine edge of their altruism.
Most memoir writers will tell you that the hardest part of writing a memoir isn't what to include, but what to leave out.
One second he was in my face, making me feel stupid and useless. The next he was like this: hovering, concerned, worried.
Matter begins evolving back to Spirit and, when it's reached, the whole process begins over again for the billionth time.
These two enormous forces - truth and meaning - are at war in today's world... And something sooner or later has to give.
But hands are sacred things. Touch is personal, fingers of love, feelers of blind eyes, tongues of those who cannot talk.
Elective office is one of many ways to serve the community and the country. It's one that I would consider at some point.
I wish every American explored the importance of novel writing, identity, honesty, character and place in fresh-ass ways.
Hon, when someone's a true friend, there's no need to miss 'em." She patted her chest. "'Cause they're always right here.
If we're to be judged by our parents and grandparents, then we all may as well impale ourselves upon jagged bits of rock.
You can't fight progress. The best you can do is ignore it, until it finally takes your livelihood and self-respect away.
Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?
And we all vied, in saving face, to be the greatest student of human nature, the person with the quickest sense of humor.
Nowadays, of course, just about our only solvent industry is the merchandising of death, bankrolled by our grandchildren.
I looked at Micah, who shrugged. I looked at Rafael, who shook his head. Nice that none of us knew why he was undressing.
I wasn't crying, my eyes were running. My eyes were running because there were pieces of zombies all over my toys. Jesus.
Questions are great, but only if you know the answers. If you ask questions and the answers surprise you, you look silly.
I should not have to flirt with someone while I'm trying to threaten someone else with a gun; it was too hard to do both.
I am a very linear thinker, so I write beginning to end. I write hundreds of pages per book that never make it into print
Whatever you hold onto that you want to do, and that other people tell you you are foolish to want to do - don't give up.
I have ten bucks in my pocket - what to spend it on? French fries - ten dollars' worth of french fries, ultimate fantasy.
There was always some germ of joy, some little paramecium of happiness wriggling around, waiting for a chance to get out.
I don't think many kids question their surroundings. Everything seems so permanent and inevitable growing up, even chaos.
She had no need to ask why he had come. She knew as certainly as if he had told her that he was here to be where she was.
There will be today, there will be tomorrow, there will be always, and there was yesterday, and there was the day before.
He felt that he was himself and did not wish to be anyone else. He only wished now to be better than he had been formerly
Objectivity and presence of mind are essential in such positions where sacrificial temptations are not always resistable.
When you live in Brooklyn, if you throw a rock, you'll hit a writer - Jonathan Safran Foer, Jonathan Lethem, Paul Auster.
A good traveller is one who does not know where he is going to, and a perfect traveller does not know where he came from.
If we can't wake up to the fact that deep down inside we are good, then we deserve to remain asleep dreaming we are evil.
By trying so hard to provide the perfectly happy childhood, we're just making it harder for our kids to actually grow up.
I always had the sense with her that she didn't suffer fools gladly but that life was taking great pains to show her how.
Part of me becomes the characters I'm writing about. I think readers feel like they are there, the way I am, as a result.
The maxim that men are not to be praised before their death was invented by envy and too lightly adopted by philosophers.