“If a context and a goal is defined I could say if it's good or bad. But overall I don't view things as good or bad. So I'm like a robot or computer in that sense. So maybe that's why people don't think they know me when they read my writing.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWritingGoalViewsComputerDefinedKnow MeRobots Author:Tao Lin
“If you're, like, a PhD student in English, and you look at each instance that Richard Yates is mentioned in the book...it has sort of it's own narrative that one could analyze and write literary criticism about.” IfsWritingLooksBookStudentsCriticismInstanceNarrativeLiterary CriticismPhds Author:Tao Lin
“While other rich people might be like, "Once I'm rich I'm going to go on a vacation to wherever," but instead they just keep wanting to be more rich. It just seems like it would be fun to do whatever you wanted. If I were really rich I would be flying places, I think.” PeopleIfsThinkingSeemsMightWould BeWantedFunRichGoes OnFlyingVacationRich People Author:Tao Lin
“It seems like I'm not [happy]. Because if you look at my tweets and what I think and say, it seems like I'm worried about what's going to happen.” IfsThinkingLooksSeemsHappensWorriedTweetNot Happy Author:Tao Lin
“It seems like most people will agree that they would like if they were treated by other people based on what they have concretely done in their life, not what other people have done, with their lives.” PeopleIfsDoneSeemsAgreeTreated Author:Tao Lin
“If I wrote about "being [abstraction]" I would be ignoring existential issues (such as death, limited-time, the arbitrary nature of the universe, the mystery of consciousness) that I feel affect me most in my life and think about most of the time. Another reason is that it doesn't seem specific or accurate, to me, to write about "being [abstraction]." I think there are some other reasons.” IfsThinkingFeelsWritingReasonSeemsWould BeUniverseConsciousnessIssuesMysteryAccurateExistentialAbstractionArbitraryLimited Time Author:Tao Lin
“I feel connected with people because of their sense of humor, worldview, and what they think and feel about certain existential issues (things not affected, in my view, by if someone rides a horse or drives a car or talks only IRL or only by typing), not how old they are, what they use to convey what they think and feel about certain existential issues, or if we have both watched the same TV shows or looked at the same websites.” PeopleIfsThinkingFeelsUseShowsCertainViewsIssuesCarTvsHorseConnectedAffectedSense Of HumorExistentialTv ShowsWebsiteWorldviewTyping Author:Tao Lin
“If I focused hard on getting a literary agent, and doing things like that, instead of designing my blog's header, I would have more money, I think. I think I don't view myself as an author. I view myself as a person. I view [anything] as part of being a person, so I feel okay with "marketing" or other things like that.” IfsThinkingFeelsPersonsHardViewsDesignOkayMarketingFocusedAgentsMore MoneyBlogsLiterary Agents Author:Tao Lin
“As a child, she’d always had what she imagined were fascinating thoughts, but didn’t ever say them. Once, as a little girl, at recess, she thought that if she ran very fast at a pole and then caught it and swung quickly around, part of her would keep going, and she would become two girls.” IfsChildrenLittlesTwoGirlCaughtRanFascinatingKeep GoingRecess Author:Tao Lin
“Though if love was an animal, Garret knew, it would probably be the Loch Ness Monster. If it didn’t exist, that didn’t matter. People made models of it, put it in the water, and took photos. The hoax of it was good enough. The idea of it. Though some people feared it, wished it would just go away, had their lives insured against being eaten alive by it.” PeopleIfsMadeIdeasMatterEnoughWaterAnimalAliveModelsMonstersGoing AwayGood EnoughHoaxesLoch Ness Monster Author:Tao Lin
“When I'm talking to someone I think 'can I use this dialogue in a book,'" said Luis. "If the answer is no I try talking to someone else.” IfsThinkingTryingSaidBookUseAnswersTalkingDialogueTalking To Someone Book:Shoplifting from American Apparel Source: Shoplifting from American Apparel
“I know,' said Erin, and described how she'd lately felt depressed in a new and scary way, which Paul also had felt lately and described as a sadness-based fear, immune to tone and interpretation, as if not meant for humans - more visceral than sadness, but unlike fear because it decreased heart rate and impaired the senses, causing everything to seem 'darker.” IfsKnowsWayHumansHeartSaidSeemsFeltSadnessRateScarySensesToneInterpretationImmuneDecreaseVisceralErinHeart Rate Book:Taipei Source: Taipei
“If I don't like someone and I start reading their stuff, it seems like my brain will just automatically start criticizing everything that's there. It's really hard to read a book without having all this outside information telling you what to think about it.” IfsThinkingBookHardSeemsReadingStuffBrainInformationCriticize Author:Tao Lin
“He sometimes felt that life was something that had already risen, and all of this, the Jackson Pollack of spring, summer, and fall, the vague refrigeration and tinfoiled sky of wintertime, was just a falling, really, originward, in a kind of correction, as if by spritual gravity, towards the wiser consciousness--or consciousnessless, maybe; could gravity trick itself like that?--of death. It was a kind of movement both very slow and very fast; there was both too much and not enough time to think.” IfsThinkingKindSometimesEnoughFallFeltConsciousnessToo MuchSkyMovementSummerSpringTricksGravityWiserVagueEnough TimeRisenCorrectionsTime To ThinkWintertimeNot Enough TimeSpring Summer Book:Eeeee Eee Eeee: A Novel Source: Eeeee Eee Eeee: A Novel
