Happy Playgrounds Quotes & Sayings

it's hard enough separating the good stuff from the bullshit without adding to the whole mess by wanting to know what you ain't gonna know. — Jim Dodge

Inside the coop where he'll stay until he's killed, the rooster sings anthems to liberty because he was given two roosts. — Fernando Pessoa

it sucks to get old...but there's always beer — James Rollins

Don't start talkin about books or quotin poems at them. these is good folks but they ain't real crazy about readin books. just do what i do and you'll be all right. — William Gay

you just had to be still and have faith, that was the main thing. — Jim Dodge

A reformer is a man who sees the world's superficial ills and sets out to cure them by aggravating the more basic ills. — Fernando Pessoa

Babies don't know anything but nipples and lullabies. they splash out looks of wonder on anybody whether they merit it or not. — Daniel Woodrell

If one wishes to see a cat badly enough, one will doubtless see one. — David Markson

mead for my men! — Donald Barthelme

god, they say, is love. and some one's got to pass the word. — Richard Farina

I'd hate to read all these books ... that much reading could put your eyes out. — Larry McMurtry

A wife's faithful to her husband, subject to him. It's in the bible. — Elmore Leonard

It's better to build a tight chicken coop than a shoddy courthouse. — William Faulkner

The enemy you flee is not exterior to yourself — John Barth

what i really need is a dead man. — Chester Himes

Make yourself invisible, or get busy with something. — Robert Walser

All over the world ... the past was being wiped out by condominiums. — Elmore Leonard

Thinking, when you first try it, is very difficult. — Charles Willeford

People are complicated; you can't label 'em with a word. — Fredric Brown

i ain't got the energy to argue. i'm an old man and i got to take a shit. — Johnny Shaw

The thing about books is, there are quite a number you don't have to read. — Donald Barthelme

If you think you see no slaves in pennsylvania," replies capt. zhang, his face as smooth as suet, "why, look again. they are not all african, nor do some of them even yet know,
may never know,
that they are slaves. slavery is very old upon these shores,
there is no innocence upon the practice anywhere, neither among the indians nor the spanish nor in the behavior of the rest of christendom, if it come to that. — Thomas Pynchon

When you're really cute that's all you have to be, you make a career out of it. someone asks you what you do, you say, 'nothing. i'm cute. — Elmore Leonard

most reviews are written by morons about morons. sensibility is at a premium in american culture these days. — Jim Dodge

we mistake induction for generation. — Richard Farina

my foolishness had me believe that i was the story, and this bleak cold night merely its setting, but in fact my real story played itself out almost independently of me or, more precisely, occurred parallel to my own little adventures. — Peter Nadas

A man should always observe fanaticism when he gets the chance. — Charles Willeford

I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents — John Steinbeck

It is discouraging to leave the past behind only to see it coming toward you like the thunderstorm which drenched you yesterday. — William H Gass

you're a mess now, but you'll be laughing about it in fifty years. — Jim Dodge

He never mentioned whether something was fair, however. Fairness itself seemed to hold very little interest for him, which I found fascinating, as people, especially young people, are very interested in what's fair. Fairness is a concept taught to nice children: it is the governing principle of kindergartens and summer camps and playgrounds and soccer fields ... Fairness is for happy people, for people who have been lucky enough to have lived a life defined more by certainties than by ambiguities. — Hanya Yanagihara

On the road halfway between faith and criticism stands the inn of reason. reason is faith in what can be understood without faith, but it's still a faith, since to understand presupposes that there's something understandable. — Fernando Pessoa

There's no need for algebra where two and two make five. — Thomas Wolfe

Ordinary people can never fall over the walls, because they never dare climb high enough to see what is beyond the walls. — B. Traven

they are mystified by certain instances. — William Carlos Williams

fate is the ultimate preexisting condition. — Mark Leyner

Do you want me to shoot thee, ingles? ... quieres? it is nothing. — Ernest Hemingway,

Sometimes i lose faith in human nature for a time; i am assailed by doubt. — William Faulkner

The new world may be in fact a very, very, very, very old world. — Padgett Powell

Time cannot do to ordinary things what we timelessly do to one another. — William H Gass

there's nothing worse on this earth than privileged bureaucratic assholes who work the system. they never get caught, and if they do, there are no real consequences. — C.J. Box

Alternate the theories you entertain about all things. — Padgett Powell

we remain children as long as we feel the urge to keep crossing this border and to learn. — Peter Nadas

In a new world behave in a new way as a new man. unhorse the conquistador. — Padgett Powell

Today is a good day to give no one a hard time about anything, or today is a good day to give everyone a hard time about everything. — Padgett Powell

The zombies, after all, were pretty slow to appreciate someone other than themselves, and they had been schooled not to denigrate the different.
Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men — Padgett Powell

Don't hesitate to insulate your house, especially the floor. — Padgett Powell

why don't you beat him? — John Steinbeck

Probably horse doo had a name in french also, but that didn't mean god intended for you to eat it. — Richard Russo

My folks wouldn't read a book if you put a gun to their dicks. but they read people all day long and always get it right. — Pat Conroy

MADE FOR TELEVISION. — John Irving

Everybody he knew was going quietly mad from being tied on a leash that was too short. — Harry Crews