“But the real life of a writer resides in showing up at the keyboard every day, with the necessary patience and mercy, and making the best decisions you can on behalf of your people. It’s a slow process. It often feels hopeless, more like an affliction than an art form. Most of us will have to find our readers one by one, in other words, and against considerable resistance. If anything qualifies us as heroic, it’s that private perpetual struggle. Put down the magazine, soldier. Forget about the other guy. Remember who you are.” PeopleIfsFeelsWritingArtRealRememberFormGuyProcessDecisionForgetStruggleReaderMercyWho You AreSoldierReal LifeResistanceMagazinesHopelessHeroicPerpetualAfflictionBehalfOther GuysKeyboardsShowing UpRemember Who You Are Author:Steve Almond
“Part of what depresses me so much about football is that it's so clearly about exploiting people, most of them poor boys of color, because of what they can do to entertain us, not because we have any genuine concern for them as people.” PeopleCan DoPoorBoysFootballColorConcernGenuineDepressingPoor BoyGenuine Concern Author:Steve Almond
“People in long-term, monogamous relationships are crushed by the expectation that a partner is going to provide everything they are looking for and wondering why they are dissatisfied when they have four of the ten boxes checked.” PeopleWonderExpectationsCrushedDissatisfied Author:Steve Almond
“You've got all these parents who are projecting their pathologies of fear onto their kids and those kids are understandably messed up. Tragedies happen and that you have to allow kids to experience their own fear and guilt and sorrow. It's the cover-up that really screws people over. Unfortunately, America specializes in cover-ups.” PeopleKidsParentSorrowTragedyGuilt Author:Steve Almond
“I really believe that art has to play a role in changing the moral direction. Mean, selfish people are in charge of the government and we're letting them make us into a much meaner culture. It reminds me of McCarthyism, to be honest, and to the early stages of fascism. There are people out there cheering for war, treating those deaths like some kind of athletic event. How sick do we have to be that this is not only acceptable, but virtually unchallenged by other politicians or clergy or anyone? And it's artists who have to stand up and be counted. Right now.” PeopleBelieveKindMeanArtWarArtistCultureMoralHonestPoliticianSickSelfishBeing HonestCheerFascismAthleticSelfish People Author:Steve Almond
“Every now and then, I'll run into someone who claims not to like chocolate, and while we live in a country where everyone has the right to eat what they want, I want to say for the record that I don't trust these people, that I think something is wrong with them, and that they're probably - and this must be said - total duds in bed.” PeopleThinkingWantSaidCountryRunningRecordsBedClaimsChocolateNow And ThenDon't Trust Author:Steve Almond
“Art arises from loss. I wish this weren't the case. I wish that every time I met a new woman and she rocked my world, I was inspired to write my ass off. But that is not what happens. What happens is we lie around in bed eating chocolate and screwing. Art is what happens when things don't work out, when you're licking your wounds. Art is, to a larger extent than people would like to think, a productive licking of the wounds.” PeopleThinkingWorldWritingArtHappensLyingWishLossCasesMetsBedEatingArt IsInspiredWork OutWoundsAriseAssProductiveChocolateLickingEating Chocolate Book:Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America Source: Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America
“It is certainly true that cooking is therapeutic, creative and all those other faintly creepy self-helpish words. I would love to tell you that learning to cook was part of my journey toward actualization. I would love to tell Oprah this. I would love to tell Oprah this while weeping. But I learned to cook for a much simpler reason: in the abject hope that people would spend time with me if I put good things in their mouth. It is, in other words (like practically everything else I do), a function of my desperation for emotional connection and acclaim.” PeopleIfsSelfReasonCreativeJourneyEmotionalMouthsConnectionsFunctionCookingGood ThingsCooksDesperationEnd TimesSpend TimeWeepingCreepyTherapeuticMy JourneyEmotional ConnectionActualizationAcclaim Author:Steve Almond
“Why are people so fascinated by how to eat Valomilks?’ She said, ‘Well, Dad, they’re round and they’re messy. But that’s what makes them fun. Once we get older we’re not supposed to be messy anymore. But for one moment when you’re eating a Valomilk, it’s okay to be messy again.” PeopleWellsSaidMomentsFunDadEatingOkayRoundsSupposed To BeFascinatedMessy Book:Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America Source: Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America
