Quotessence
Home / Authors / Michael Finkel

Michael Finkel Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllSolitudeSilenceAloneWoodsMuseumsPeopleReadingArtCrimeHumanJailJourneyLonelinessSelfSocietySoundSurroundedTheftWorldAcceptable

Famous Michael Finkel Quotes

“His chief form of entertainment was reading. The last moments he was in a cabin were usually spent scanning bookshelves and nightstands. The life inside a book always felt welcoming to Knight. It pressed no demands on him, while the world of actual human interactions was so complex. Conversations between people can move like tennis games, swift and unpredictable. There are constant subtle visual and verbal cues, there's innuendo, sarcasm, body language, tone. Everyone occasionally fumbles an encounter, a victim of social clumsiness. It's part of being human. To Knight, it all felt impossible. His engagement with the written word might have been the closest he could come to genuine human encounters. The stretch of days between thieving raids allowed him to tumble into the pages, and if he felt transported he could float in bookworld, undisturbed, for as long as he pleased.”

PeopleWorldBookReadingGamesImpossibleWrittenHumanVictimConstantEntertainmentGenuineToneEncountersTennisSubtleSarcasmEngagementUnpredictableWordBody LanguageConversationsComplexBookshelvesInnuendoEncounterDemandsInteractionsVerbalWelcomingVisualFloatCabinPleasedSwiftTumbleCuesThievingRaidsTransportedUndisturbedFumblesBookworldNightstandsSocial Clumsiness
Book:The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
Create image

“Language and hearing are seated in the cerebral cortex, the folded gray matter that covers the first couple of millimeters of the outer brain like wrapping paper. When one experiences silence, absent even reading, the cerebral cortex typically rests. Meanwhile, deeper and more ancient brain structures seem to be activated--the subcortical zones. People who live busy, noisy lives are rarely granted access to these areas. Silence, it appears, is not the opposite of sound. It is another world altogether, literally offering a deeper level of thought, a journey to the bedrock of the self.”

WorldSelfReadingLanguageSoundBrainSilenceJourneyBusyAncientDeeperHearingAccessThoughtExperiencesNoisyBedrockStructuresGray MatterActivatedCerebral CortexSubcortical
Book:The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
Create image