Quotes from Neil Strauss

The restaurant was traditional Serbian fare, heavy on the red peppers and red meat. And the music was pure anarchy: Four brass bands wandered the rooms, blaring a cacophony of overlapping parade marches.

Back then, I had no idea that I'd ever feel unsafe in America or be preparing for disaster myself. We seemed to stand monolithic and invulnerable at the center of the political, cultural, and moral universe, unchallenged as the world's lone superpower. For

The great thing about real life is that it will always surprise you.

My dad, who was seventy-four, was now ill with myeloma and cancer in his bloodstream. My mom, who was much younger, spent every day and night taking care of him. I wanted somebody in my life to do that for me, and I wanted somebody I could do that for.

Something changed in me, as it did for many people, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It felt like the day I first beat my father at arm wrestling. In that moment, I realized that he could no longer protect me. I had to take care of myself.

He was immense, balding, and toadlike, with warts covering his face and the voice of a hundred thousand cigarette packs. My

I want to learn martial arts, so when I want to kill someone, I can do something about it

This was why only the uptight, small-minded kids in school got involved in politics, I thought. It's not about changing the world. It's still about what lunch table you sit at.

Suddenly I realize that the dichotomy between the false self and the authentic self that all these recovery people talk about is meaningless. It's a value judgment that's impossible to determine. A better way to think about it is the destructive self and the creative self: the you that damages your life and the lives of others, and the you that brings forth the best in yourself, is connected to others, and is in harmony with the world around you.

The ideal I've been striving for is not the way people have relationships in the real world.

Katya, a petite Russian blonde with a Smurfette voice and the energy of a Pomeranian puppy, was at the front door in ten minutes with a Xanax and a worried look on her face. "Do

Just as I was about to eject, Heidi marched in. "So," she asked my former target. "How do you know Style?" "We just met him," she said. "You looked like old friends," Heidi told her with an obsequious smile. Then she turned to me and whispered, "They're boring. Let's move on." As

So I'm removing myself from the gene pool," he sobbed. She

Every time I have to make a tough decision, I ask myself: "What would Tom Cruise do?" Then I jump up and down on the couch. Thanks

Talking in statement form is the way old friends speak to each other. Statements are the mode of the intimate, the confident, and the giving. They invite others to share and make perfect metaphysical sense.

in the process, I was creating a hunger that could never be satiated.

All I have is my mind, and nobody can see that.

I just didn't realize that I'd ever be able to pull it off so smoothly or that, in the process, I was creating a hunger that could never be satiated. After another two months of workshops, I flew back to Los Angeles for a break.

So while the kids played in the room next door, I had sex for the first time and discovered that it was like masturbation, but a lot more work.

She expressed shock at my many injuries and scars. I kissed this little-ass, adorable-ass stripper mothafucka tenderly and said, "I'm not an insane maniac. I'm a poser insane maniac. I'm just dealing with the absurdity of existence by shoving absurdity down existence's throat." She

Simply by defining oneself as a PUA—a title earned solely by the responses of women—one becomes doomed to derive his entire self-esteem and identity from the attention of the opposite sex, not

He wasn't necessarily attractive, but he was charismatic—tall and thin, with long chestnut hair, high cheekbones, and a bloodless pallor. He looked like a computer geek who'd been bitten by a vampire and was midway through his transformation. Next

It's between weak guys and strong guys. Women are drawn to men who demonstrate strength—not necessarily physical strength, but the ability to make them feel safe. So if you're a nice guy, you can still be nice. But you must also be strong.

It's odd how relationships work like that: Love is not an accident. It is a delicate union of two complex, complementary puzzle pieces that have inadvertently been created by different manufacturers.