“When confronted with a demand that the universe have a cause, infidels have usually pointed out that God was not much of an explanation. This is true enough, but not really a positive argument. After mechanistic explanation became popular, infidels liked to restrict causality to the chain of causes in an eternal material universe, pointing out that no supernatural cause was then necessary. Plausible, but still rather defensive. Today's skeptic can do better. In all likelihood, the universe is uncaused. It is random. It just is.” StillsEnoughTodayReligionUniverseCausesCan DoMaterialsDemandEternalArgumentChainsExplanationPointingSkepticPlausibleLikelihoodInfidelCausality Author:Taner Edis
“Happiness doesn't necessarily lie in material things. You just have to put yourself in a position to be happy. If you can do what you love for a living, that's a good start.” IfsLyingCan DoPositionMaterialsWhat You LoveMaterial Things Author:Joan Jett
“I do have a sense of fear every day going to work, but I think it's something that I like. I mean I do like the feeling of waking up on my own, having this moment of like: "Oh, f**k, I hope I can do this today!" Because it makes you realise that you're working with material or you're working with a director or you're working with a cast and they're keeping you on your toes.” ThinkingMeanI CanMomentsFeelingsTodayCan DoMy OwnMaterialsDirectorsWake UpCastsRealisingWakingToesGoing To WorkI Can Do This Author:Charlize Theron
“Stand-up life is really hard. At one point, I got so paralyzed I could write five screenplays before I could write three jokes for stand-up. Later, I've finally allowed myself to relax quite a bit, to think I can do it because I've done it in the past. The pressure to come up with the material is the same but the anxiety about whether I can do it is gone.” ThinkingWritingI CanHardDonePastLife IsThreeBitsCan DoGoneFiveMaterialsAnxietyJokesPressureCome UpRelaxScreenplaysI Can Do ItParalyzed Author:Steve Martin
“There were times, I could say, later in the career, that I wished that my voice would be deeper for materials that I might've wanted to select to do. But that's the style of my voice. There's nothing I can do about the heighth of my voice. And so I learned to deal with it.” I CanMightWould BeWantedVoiceCan DoDealsCareersStyleMaterialsDeeperSelect Author:Jimmy Scott
“The flimsy little protestations that mark the front gate of every novel, the solemn statements that any resemblance to real persons living or dead is entirely coincidental, are fraudulent every time. A writer has no other material to make his people from than the people of his experience ... The only thing the writer can do is to recombine parts, suppress some characterisitics and emphasize others, put two or three people into one fictional character, and pray the real-life prototypes won't sue.” PeopleLittlesPersonsTwoRealCharacterThreeCan DoNovelFrontsMaterialsPrayingMarkReal LifeStatementsGatesSolemnResemblanceReal PersonPrototypeFictional Character Author:Wallace Stegner
“Now I rewrite more and more severely, and I take great pleasure in cutting thousands of words out of first drafts; I think that's a pleasure worth learning as early as possible in one's career, not least because realizing that one can do it helps one relax into writing the first draft in which it's better to have too much material for later shaping than not enough.” ThinkingWritingFirstsEnoughHelpingCan DoRealizingPleasureCareersToo MuchCuttingMaterialsRelax Author:Ramsey Campbell
“Germans, Frenchmen and Englishmen can say of themselves: "I am the state." I cannot say that. In Russia only the people in the Kremlin can say that. All other citizens are nothing more than human material with which they can do all kinds of things.” PeopleHumansKindStatesCan DoMaterialsCitizensRussiaAll KindsEnglishmenFrenchmenKremlin Author:Vladimir Sorokin