“The pictures do not lie, but neither do they tell the whole story. They are merely a record of time passing, the outward evidence.”
—Paul Auster, Travels in the Scriptorium
May 2012
22 posts
April 2012
24 posts
“Nothing lasts, you see, not even the thoughts inside you. And you mustn’t waste your time looking for them. Once a thing is gone, that is the end of it.”
—Paul Auster, In The Country of Last Things
“Girls with their legs crossed, girls with their legs not crossed, girls with terrific legs, girls with lousy legs, girls that looked like swell girls, girls that looked like they’d be bitches if you knew them. It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them. When they got out of school and college, I mean. You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to a gallon in their goddam cars. Guys that get sore and childish as hell if you beat them at golf, or even just some stupid game like ping-pong. Guys that are very mean. Guys that never read books. Guys that are very boring— But I have to be careful about that. I mean about calling certain guys bores. I don’t understand boring guys. I really don’t.”
—J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
“The rain makes no distinctions. At one time or another it falls on everyone, and when it falls everyone is equal to everyone else — no one better, no one worse, everyone equal and the same.”
—Paul Auster, In the Country of Last Things
“Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”
—George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
“‘Their first love-making had been simply an act of the will. But after the second time it was different. The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all around him. She had become a physical necessity, something that he not only wanted but felt he had the right to’”
—George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
“ “Love is the only rational act.” ”
—Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
“That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.”
—J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
“I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful. If I’m on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I’m going, I’m liable to say I’m going to the opera. It’s terrible.”
—J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
“So long as human beings stay human, death and life are the same thing.”
—George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
