Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Stephen P. Kiernan

Quote by Stephen P. Kiernan

Work

Universe of Two: A Novel

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Stephen P. Kiernan

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Stephen P. Kiernan. more

You May Also Like

“I feel the word regret should not be in any language's vocabulary. It is completely useless for someone to regret. It does not change anything that has happened or occurred. However, a person can benefit from what has happened to move on and learn from it when something similar has passed by again the next time. A ten years old child who is playing for the first time with his friend a new Xbox game will never regret losing his trial early in the game. Instead, he will use his first time's experience to do better the next time. Now, he knows how to use some of the device's features and tools better and he knows exactly where, how, and why he failed the first time and will make sure not to repeat what he did the first time. In other words, he will be more aware and alert the next time. Even there is no guarantee to win the entire game or achieve the highest score the next time he plays, though he will do better.”

“Regret isn’t a strong enough motivator. They tell you to travel because if you don’t, you’ll regret it down the road. And so everyone did things that stemmed from a negative origin. Sex because I’ll get old. Dieting because I’ll get fat. Work because I’ll be poor. Success to prove my doubters wrong. But desire must derive from the action. It must be the thing that supplies us with a reason. The rest is negative fuel. We must jump over the crack in the cliff not because we’d regret never doing it, but because the other side of the rock calls to us. We must be drawn to the activity itself and let today lead us, rather than allow an invisible future do the haunting. We must live in additions. There’s a difference between “Oh, at least I don’t regret it” versus “Wow, that was a beautiful train I took.”

“Last reason for reading horror: it’s a rehearsal for death. It’s a way to get ready. People say there’s nothing sure but death and taxes. But that’s not really true. There’s really only death, you know. Death is the biggie. Two hundred years from now, none of us are going to be here. We’re all going to be someplace else. Maybe a better place, maybe a worse place; it may be sort of like New Jersey, but someplace else. The same thing can be said of rabbits and mice and dogs, but we’re in a very uncomfortable position: we’re the only creatures—at least as far as we know, though it may be true of dolphins and whales and a few other mammals that have very big brains—who are able to contemplate our own end. We know it’s going to happen. The electric train goes around and around and it goes under and around the tunnels and over the scenic mountains, but in the end it always goes off the end of the table. Crash.”