Quotes from Dave Eggers

This was Josie's preferred method of parenting: go someplace like this, with grand scale and much to be discovered, and watch your children wander and injure themselves but not significantly. Sit and do nothing. When they come back to show you something, some rock or mop of seaweed, inspect it and ask questions about it. Socrates invented the ideal method for the parent who likes to sit and do very little.

Their howls rose to the sky and twisted together until they were on, and the other beasts joined in too, all of their voices creating a wild, plaintive song of sorry and abandon and anger and love.

In the forest, we boys were food.

Overnight, all comment boards became civil, all posters held accountable. The trolls, who had more or less overtaken the internet, were driven back into the darkness.

The country he had left thirty years ago had been a realistic place. There were political realities there, then and now, that precluded blind faith, that discouraged one from thinking that everything, always, would work out fairly and equitably. But he had come to believe such things in the United States. Things had worked out. Difficulties had been overcome. He had worked hard and achieved success. The machinery of government functioned.

What had been intriguing on Monday and Tuesday was approaching annoying by Wednesday and exasperating by Thursday.

The woman serving me was wearing a white sports bra that looked like it had been mauled by tigers--desert isle chic.

Mokhtar and his friends would be working a hustle when one of them would look up. Isn't that your pops, Mokhtar? His father circled his childhood as he circled the city—a kind of sixty-foot roaming conscience.

They brought you here so you could have choices," Ghassan said. "And you're blowing it. If you want to do something different when you grow up, you're going to have to get your shit together.

Next to the photo was a frown button that said "We denounce the Central Guatemalan Security Forces." Mae hesitated briefly, knowing the gravity of what she was about to do—to come out against these rapists and murderers—but she needed to make a stand. She pushed the button.

Mae, so many of the things I invented I honestly did for fun, out of some perverse game of whether or not they'd work, whether people would use them. I mean, it was like setting up a guillotine in the public square. You don't expect a thousand people to line up to put their heads in it

Education about Yemen will come through customers' engagement with the product. And in the meantime you'll employ actual Yemeni people. And you'll do something tangible. And you'll make a living. And you won't have to ask for donations. And it won't have to be about Islam. You're not selling Islamic coffee beans. Sell Yemeni beans. Do that, and do it well, and the rest will follow.

Historically, Yemen, when not being invaded or colonized by outside powers, from the Ottomans to the British, was fighting itself.

something about how all this could or would lead to totalitarianism. Her stomach sank.

I wondered quickly if I'd give my life so that a dragon could live. If someone offered me that deal, your life for the existence of dragons.I thought maybe yes, maybe no.

For years I feared the opening of every elevator, half-convinced that from the opened doors would come a bullet, for me, shot by a man in a tan trenchcoat. I have no idea why I feared this, expected it to happen. I even knew how I would react to this bullet coming from the elevator door, what word I would say. That word was: Finally.

1. The Amazing Race 2. I Thought This Show Was Gonna Be About Aryans 3. Oh. (Joe O'Neill, from Opium)

You wouldn't believe what people will believe once they know our story. They're ready for anything, basically—will believe anything, because they've been thrown off-balance, are still wondering if any of this is true, our story in general, but aren't sure and are terrified of offending us.

Always we learn things and then we forget them.

Director of Ensuring the Future

don't presume the benevolence of your leaders.

A soldier lives . . . Ã¢â'¬Â   A soldier lives a soldier dies a military chaplain sighs   a flag is folded someone cries a general tells the truth or lies   a politician simplifies a voice vote echoes only ayes   reporters ask for hows and whys a spokesman has to improvise   some doctrine somehow still applies negotiators compromise   or don't as one more soldier dies.   —Robert West

To be described is to be seduced. Shit. One turn of phrase. One thing noticed that she'd never noticed. It works always.

they both understood mistakes are made by all and that they should, if everyone is acknowledging our common humanity, our common frailty and propensity for sounding and looking ridiculous a thousand times a day, that these mistakes should be allowed to be forgotten.