“When you're reading a novel, I think the reason you care about how any given plot turns out is that you take it as a data point in the big story of how the world works. Does such-and-such a kind of guy get the girl in the end? Does adultery ever bring happiness? How do winners become winners?” ThinkingWorldKindDoeBookEndsReasonStoriesBigsCareGuyTurnsGirlReadingGivenNovelDataWinnerPlotAdultery Author:Elif Batuman
“I'm not the kind of writer that can wake up and say, "Okay, I'm gonna write a song today," and have that song be the kind I would want to record. The songs of mine that I end up liking are songs that come from real experience. They're like chapter titles in my life.” WantWritingKindRealEndsTodaySongRecordsMinesOkayWake UpTitlesChapters Author:Lyle Lovett
“Give me an adventure. I'm not talking about some massive adventure. Just something that would make getting fired seem small. Something that I might remember when I'm old." "I can't predict the future," I said, "but based on what little I know so far, I'm afraid it has to be a massive adventure or nothing." "Great!" "Probably the kind of adventure that ends in a mass burial.” KnowsGivingKindLittlesSaidI CanEndsSeemsMightRememberTalkingAdventureMassGive MeMassiveRemember WhenNot TalkingBurialGetting Fired Book:Anathem Source: Anathem
“Education, and the life of the mind generally, is a matter in which individual initiative is the chief thing needed; the function of the state should begin and end with insistence on some kind of education, and, if possible, a kind which promotes mental individualism, not a kind which happens to conform to the prejudices of government officials.” IfsShouldMindKindEndsMatterStatesGovernmentHappensIndividualNeededFunctionPrejudiceChiefsOfficialsIndividualismInitiativeConformInsistenceGovernment Officials Book:Pacifism and Revolution, 1916-18 Source: Pacifism and Revolution, 1916-18