#fr

Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#ceases #exist #expression #freedom of expression #offend

For Children: You will need to know the difference between Friday and a fried egg. It's quite a simple difference, but an important one. Friday comes at the end of the week, whereas a fried egg comes out of a chicken. Like most things, of course, it isn't quite that simple. The fried egg isn't properly a fried egg until it's been put in a frying pan and fried. This is something you wouldn't do to a Friday, of course, though you might do it on a Friday. You can also fry eggs on a Thursday, if you like, or on a cooker. It's all rather complicated, but it makes a kind of sense if you think about it for a while. ↗

— Douglas Adams

#fried-egg #humour #doubt

He hadn't spoken a word since they'd left the manor except to snap out directions, telling her which way to turn at a fork in the road, or ordering her to skirt a pothole. Even then she doubted if he would have minded much if she'd fallen into the pothole, except that it would have slowed them down. ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#jace-and-clary #jace-wayland #doubt

The family is the cradle of the world’s misinformation. There must be something in family life that generates factual error. Over-closeness, the noise and heat of being. Perhaps even something deeper like the need to survive. Murray says we are fragile creatures surrounded by a world of hostile facts. Facts threaten our happiness and security. The deeper we delve into things, the looser our structure may seem to become. The family process works towards sealing off the world. Small errors grow heads, fictions proliferate. I tell Murray that ignorance and confusion can’t possibly be the driving forces behind family solidarity. What an idea, what a subversion. He asks me why the strongest family units exist in the least developed societies. Not to know is a weapon of survival, he says. Magic and superstition become entrenched as the powerful orthodoxy of the clan. The family is strongest where objective reality is most likely to be misinterpreted. What a heartless theory, I say. But Murray insists it’s true. ↗

— Don DeLillo

#hostile-facts #white-noise #family

Rose? is that you?" I peered behind him. Lissa. "What are you doing here?" "What are you doing here?" She asked "Ladies, ladies" he said teasingly. "No need to fight over me." I glared. "We're not. ↗

— Richelle Mead

#rose

Wait." Clary was suddenly nervous. "The melted metal-it could be, like, toxic or something." Maia snorted. "I'm from New Jersey. I born in toxic sludge. ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#maia #new-jersey #toxic-sludge #waiting

I don't see how the study of language and literature can be separated from the question of free speech, which we all know is fundamental to our society. [p.92] ↗

— Northrop Frye

#literary-criticism #education

The only real radicalism in our time will come as it always has—from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject party-mindedness. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#independence #partisanship #politics #radicalism #iraq

Trying to build myself up with the fact that I have done things right that were even good and have had moments that were excellent but the bad is heavier to carry around and feel have no confidence. ↗

— Marilyn Monroe

#fragments #intimate-notes #letters #marilyn-monroe #poems

We're all born with selfish desires, so we can all relate to those feelings in others. But kindness is something made individually by each person...so it's easy to misunderstand when others are trying to be kind to you. ↗

— Natsuki Takaya

#kindness #misunderstanding #desire