Tennessee Williams

For love I make characters in plays.

William S. Burroughs

Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war.

William S. Burroughs

So cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.

Michelle Richmond, The Year of Fog

Even if our scientists were to solve the problem of memory, we would still be at a loss. Memory, by its nature, is merely retroactive, nothing more than a way of acknowledging how we got to where we are. We will never be able to hear the cesium atom, its furious oscillations, each millionth of a second bringing us closer to some monumental change.

Laurie Anderson, Same Time Tomorrow

You know the little clock, the one on your VCR
the one that's always blinking twelve noon
because you never figured out
how to get in there and change it?
So it's always the same time
just the way it came from the factory.
Good morning. Good night.
Same time tomorrow. We're in record.

So here are the questions: Is time long or is it wide?
And the answers? Sometimes the answers
just come in the mail. And one day you get the letter
you've been waiting for forever. And everything it says
is true. And then the last line says:
Burn this. We're in record.

And what I really want to know is: Are things getting better
or are they getting worse? Can we start all over again?
Stop. Pause. We're in record. Good morning. Good night.
Now I in you without a body move.
And in our hearts we fly. Standby.
Good morning. Good night.

George Eliot, Daniel Deronda

Attempts at description are stupid: who can all at once describe a human being? even when he is presented to us we only begin that knowledge of his appearance which must be completed by innumerable impressions under differing circumstances. We recognise the alphabet; we are not sure of the language.

Susan Choi, The Foreign Student

The most shocking act, closely examined, is just a louder version of some habitual gesture. No one is ever out of character.