Inmemoriam Maasmechelen Quotes & Sayings

You should know, my son, that that's what heroism is all about. No one's ever ready to be a hero - there's no way to prepare for it. Of course, you can practise till you're really good at running up to the gunport and have the knack of falling neatly across it on your chest - we teach all of that. But you can't teach anyone the actual inner act of heroism, it can only be performed. The more you wanted to live before, the better for the act of heroic sacrifice. — Victor Pelevin

I will venture to affirm, that the three seasons wherein our corn has miscarried did no more contribute to our present misery, than one spoonful of water thrown upon a rat already drowned would contribute to his death; and that the present plentiful harvest, although it should be followed by a dozen ensuing, would no more restore us, than it would the rat aforesaid to put him near the fire, which might indeed warm his fur-coat, but never bring him back to life. — Jonathan Swift

No one knew better than he how an understanding of poetry depends on an understanding of the poet's universe. — Jocelyn Gibb

I focus on the elements of a movie that are meant to invisibly affect me as a viewer. The edges. As an author, I'm aware of how the subconscious things can pluck at a reader's emotions, and I love it when filmmakers do the same. — Maggie Stiefvater

I was 16 years old, and I was just flailing around, looking for an interest. I heard, you know, these jazz records. They were modern records, at the time in the '50s, and I realized that I didn't fully get what was going on. But I liked a lot of what I heard. — Harvey Pekar