Occasionally Cortez Quotes & Sayings

On my last ride on the RR train I looked almost as lovingly at the faces and expressions of my fellow passengers as if I were staring a a photograph of times long past. They did not know that they made a photograph. They did not understand the vanishing background of their lives ... — Mark Helprin

... she smiles in an exhausted but warm sort of way, as though she is a brilliant sun in some other galaxy — Audrey Niffenegger

Once undressed I felt less exposed. (...) Naked was my uniform. (...) There was no pressure to conform. — Aiden Shaw

I'm always glad that other people are way smarter about my poems than I am. — Shane McCrae

Instead of being a gift that separates us from the animals, free will has become my gaoler. Junkies are the ultimate outsider, not only are we outside of society: we are outside of nature. I spit, turn, and wander towards the beach. Heroin gave me wings but took away the sky. — Drew Gates

When a spy is captured, he takes a suicide pill, believing it's better to die than be tortured. By that reasoning shouldn't those same pills be issued to anyone foolish enough to fall in love? - The Lighter Side of Death — Kyra Davis

The establishment of an authentic relationship with patients, by its very nature, demands that we forego the power of the triumvirate of magic, mystery, and authority. — Irvin D. Yalom

The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs ... In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He proves, also, that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck.
[Letter to James Smith discussing Jefferson's hate of the doctrine of the Christian trinity, December 8 1822] — Thomas Jefferson

Awaken my love.
Awaken my soul.
Awaken my spirit. — Lailah Gifty Akita

History is present in all my novels. And whether I am directly talking about the sociological moment or just immersing my character in the environment, I am very aware of it. — Paul Auster

One of the saddest things about dying is that it's the only event in my life I won't be able to write about. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The sludge caught in the mind's filter, the stuff that refuses to go through, frequently becomes each person's private obsession. — Stephen King

The near enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, "I will love this person because I need them." Or, "I'll love you if you'll love me back. I'll love you, but only if you will be the way I want." This isn't love at all - it is attachment - and attachment is rigid, it is very different from love. — Jack Kornfield

I can't believe that in the world of wrong we've created together, this can still feel so right. — Leisa Rayven