Quotes About Ambivalence

But I knew it was pure masturbation, because down in my gut I wanted nothing more than a clean bed and a bright room and something solid to call my own at least until I got tired of it. There was an awful suspicion in my mind that I'd finally gone over the hump, and the worst thing about it was that I didn't feel tragic at all, but only weary, and sort of comfortably detatched.

It was the tension between these two poles - a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other - that kept me going.

Some of them carry paralytic rabies, but it is hard to know which ones.

This is so much like the old days. And, again, I have mixed feelings. In some ways it's good and comfortable to be fitting straight back in like I've never been away, but, on the other hand, I'm getting this constrictive feeling as well. It's the same places - like the bars and pubs on Friday night - the same people, the same conversations, the same arguments and the same attitudes. Five years away and not much seems to have changed. I can't decide if this is good or bad.

I did not like Ravenscliff by instinct, but I was beginning to find him fascinating. A book-reading, socialist-sympathising, child-begetting capitalist fraud.

Old Europa tosses in her dreams. She wants to help but she doesn't want to share or lose what she has.

Era stanca di stare all'aperto, ma non aveva voglia di rientrare. Tutta qui, la scelta che offriva la vita, star dentro o star fuori? Possibile che la gente non potesse andare anche altrove?

In New York all the young people know me... I have a lot of friends... but I hate New York.

I often think I can see it in myself and in other young writers, this desperate desire to please coupled with a kind of hostility to the reader.

When I was younger, I wanted to be older. Now I am older, I am not quite so sure.

Life is full of tough decisions, and nothing makes them easy. But the worst ones are really your personal koans, and tormenting ambivalence is just the sense of satori rising. Try, trust, try, and trust again, and eventually you'll feel your mind change its focus to a new level of understanding.

Having a love-hate relationship with road trips is inevitable.

I've never been much for the accolades and for the trophies and for the merits because at one time in my life I kind of got bored of all those.

The acceptance to Harvard was more of trophy than a real possibility to me. I would have been miserable.

If the award comes with a check, then I want that award. But if it doesn't come with a check, then I'm not that interested. I'd much rather join NASCAR and get a trophy and a check.

Man has, as it were, become a kind of prosthetic God. When he puts on all his auxiliary organs, he is truly magnificent; but those organs have not grown on him and they still give him much trouble at times.

I wouldn't mind having another shot at doing comedy, but I'm not sure that's the way I'd want to go.

I can't say that I always want to get out of bed, you know.

Americans have always had an ambivalent attitude toward intelligence. When they feel threatened, they want a lot of it, and when they don't, they regard the whole thing as somewhat immoral.

Curious how often you Humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.

We all parent the best we can. Being human, we're ambivalent. We want perfection for our babies, but we also need sleep.

Some actors get fired up by the sound of the audience. I just want to retreat.

If you force me to pick one color, it'd be Black... It covers up the things inside of me that I don't want to be known. Well, for the same reason, black is the color I hate, too.

People want to change everything and, at the same time, want it all to remain the same.