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Famous Mason Cooley Quotes
“Clouds of flavors and savors float around the thing-in-itself.”
“Rules that are never violated cease to be recognized as Rules.”
“The language of pornography is abusive, that of romance adoring. Both are addressed to a fetish.”
“Complainers rule out happiness, mentioning it only as something lost.”
“Modern pictures banish depiction for interfering with the workings of paint.”
“The beginning, middle, and end are parodied, reversed, and hidden by modernism, but not abandoned.”
“Modern literature seduces with insults, riddles, and inside stories.”
“Avant-garde art jousts with propriety, but takes care never to unseat it.”
“Modernism: the books are as hard to understand as life itself.”
“Thrift is an attractive idea until you get down to specifics.”
“Self-sacrifice usually contains an unspoken demand for payment.”
“Alzheimer's usually comes later than AIDS, but I decline to call that progress.”
“F. Scott Fitzgerald thought that prolonging his adolescence would protect his talent.”
“To learn a vocation, you also have to learn the frauds it practices and the promises it breaks.”
“An event is not over until everyone is tired of talking about it.”
“Since events are not metaphors, the literal-minded have a certain advantage in dealing with them.”
“Antagonistic cooperation is the principle of all markets and many marriages.”
“I want to appear ordinary, but I have it understood that I am not.”
“Supermarkets depict abundance; boutiques exclusiveness; roadside stands authenticity.”
“Change is upsetting. Repetition is tedious. Three cheers for variation!”
“The self-righteous rule out the possibility that they are what has gone wrong.”
“A sense of righteousness is even more dangerous than a violent temper.”
“The self-righteous feel no need to be charming, and thus double their offensiveness.”
“Consensus is usually made possible by vague language and shallow commitments.”
“The little suckings and smackings of the perversions are the sounds of joyous infancy.”
“A suburb is an attempt to get out of reach of the city without having the city be out of reach.”
“Excrement can never be culturally elaborated to the extent that nutriment can.”
“Position yourself well enough, and circumstances will do the rest.”
“Self-conscious? Try a wig, a corset, a veil, a beard. Or cultivate shamelessness.”