Ruttigen Quotes & Sayings

T[he rules of writing] require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. — Mark Twain

I speak of a clinical depression that is the background of your entire life, a background of anguish and anxiety, a sense that nothing goes well, that pleasure is unavailable and all your strategies collapse. — Leonard Cohen

The contemplation of consciousness - which is the contemplation of no-thing whatsoever - is endlessly fascinating. It's like staring at a candle in a dark night - you find yourself mesmerized by something that is unchanging yet infinitely compelling. You feel drawn into something you don't understand rationally but that your heart or soul grasps completely. You are drawn into it, and as you are drawn into it, the only thing you experience as real is the eternal or timeless nature of Being itself. You find yourself in a state of rapture, because the deepest part of yourself has been released from your ego's endless fears and concerns, and drawn out of the time process altogether. — Andrew Cohen

The best novelist of my generation is an Italian living in Paris, still working and improving - Italo Calvino. — Gore Vidal

There is no moral to my song,
I praise no right, I blame no wrong;
I tell of things that I have seen,
I show the man that I have been
As simply as a poet can
Who knows himself poet and man. — Thomas MacDonagh

Contemplating Clodia I find scarcely a drop in my heart of that compassion which Epicurus enjoins us to extend toward the erring. — Thornton Wilder

These people who were supposed to be my family, who had conspired to look enough like me to serve as a critique of my appearance ... — Ben Marcus

We just played unselfishly. At times this year, we've played selfish, but today we passed the ball ... We were just very supportive of each other. — Rajon Rondo

Whether one has natural talent or not, any learning period requires the willingness to suffer uncertainty and embarrassment. — Gail Sheehy

I thought of Andrew Martin kissing her. This was what humans did. They kissed. Like so many human things, it made no sense. Or maybe, if you tried it, the logic would unfold. — Matt Haig

Meditation
practice begins by sitting down and assuming your seat cross-legged on
the ground. You begin to feel that by simply being on the spot, your
life can become workable and even wonderful. You realize that you are
capable of sitting like a king or queen on a throne. The regalness of
that situation shows you the ... dignity that comes from being still and
simple. — Chogyam Trungpa