“You improve your reputation for veracity only slightly by uttering a truth, even a noble one, but be discovered in one deliberate lie, even a small one, and you will never quite be believed again.”
&ndash Richard Taylor, philosopher
“4. You are allowed to like Bruce Willis movies. I love films where things explode. I also love television, pop music, and fast-food restaurants. Thse things are wonderful. So are opera, museums, and theater. But I don’t trust people who wrinkle their noses when you say your favorite movie is Buffy the Vampire Slayer or who appear shocked when you mention reading Jackie Collins novels or listening to ABBA. These things are fun, and you need fun. Not everything in life has to be deep and meaningful. Spending three hours watching the Oscars to see what people are wearing is just as legitimate as sitting through La Boheme. Plus, you can have snacks.”
&ndash Michael Thomas Ford, writer
“Never forget what you were born knowing: That this fluke, single, huge, cross-indexed, thermodynamic experiment of a story that the world has been inventing to tell itself at bedtime is still in embryo. It’s not even the outline of a synopsis of notes toward a rought draft yet. Buy the plot some time; take in more, consume less, recycle everything; book-keep all hidden costs; find out where you have been set down; lobby for a smarter market; get rid of your car and travel as widely as you can (yeah, walk; what the hell); try to say a little more than you mean; carry a pocket encyclopedia (ask for the one without packaging) and when the entry on “Diffusion Constant” says, “For more information, see ‘Pastry War,’ see ‘Pastry War.”
&ndash Richard Powers, Writer
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.”
&ndash Allen Ginsberg, Howl
“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
&ndash Oscar Wilde
“Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other… Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts.”
&ndash Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self–Reliance
“Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.”
&ndash William Blake
“There’s no doubt in my mind that once you begin to have a clear sense that you are going to die, you really begin to live — and that’s all there really is, because the meaning of life is in the living of it.”
&ndash Spalding Gray
“Watch your self. Watch yourself at all times. Watch yourself as though you were observing a Martian. Watch others as though they were also Martians under observation.
Remember what Krishnamurti said when a disciple asked him “Why is there evil in the world?” Replied, “To thicken the plot.” It’s a good theatrical mataphor to filter reality through. Just watch yourself and enjoy the way everybody plays themselves to the hilt all the time.
Try to do nothing for money that you wouldn’t do for free. Try to take nothing for free that you wouldn’t pay money for. Try to get your money back if the advice in this book doesn’t work for you. Try to be honest with yourelf for twenty-four hours…”
&ndash Paul Krassner, writer, activist
“My advice is simple. When possible, turn off the sound. Don’t be overly concerned about being happy. Try to need less, to find work that doesn’t demean you. Read more, talk less. Try to raise your own children without television. When despair sets in, as it will, sit quietly and wait it out in silence.”
&ndash Valerie Martin, Writer
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