Quotes About Meaning

But comedy is ingrained. A writer doesn't choose to be comic. You can choose a plot, or not to have one. You can choose your characters. But comedy is not a choice; it just comes out that way.

Garp was a natural storyteller; he could make things up, one right after the other, and they seemed to fit. But what did they mean?

A what?" said Egg. No doubt he thought that an inferiority complex was a weapon; sometimes, I guess, it is.

As often as I feel certain that God exists, I feel as often at a loss to say what difference it makes—that He exists—or even: that to believe in God, which I do, raises more questions than it presents answers. Thus, when I am feeling my most faithful, I also feel full of a few hard questions that I would like to put to God—I mean, critical questions of the How-Can-He, How-Could-He, How-Dare-You variety.

How I live matters more than what I do. I have ambitions for the quality of how I live. I have no ambition for making money ...and I'd have time to read enough to be a constant source of information, ideas and language.

They were William Blake's words, set to song

Whom do I know who's alive whom I love? Good question—one that can bring you back to life. These days, I love Dan Needham and the Rev. Katherine Keeling; I know I love them because I worry about them—Dan should lose some weight, Katherine should gain some! What I

But he was not acting in this performance—they were.

It means touch, basically—almost a hammered kind of touch

If pride was a sin, thought Dr. Larch, the greatest sin was moral pride. He

The autobiography part isn't what matters," I began, before I got bogged down in all the amalgams. The

Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean-- make sure they know what they mean!

How could Owen Meany have known what he "knew"? It's no answer, of course, to believe in accidents, or in coincidences; but is God really a better answer? If God had a hand in what Owen "knew," what a horrible question that poses! For how could God have let that happen to Owen Meany? Watch out for people who call themselves religious; make sure you know what they mean—make sure they know what they mean!

I find that I can have no enjoyment in the World but continual drinking of Knowledge - I find there is no worthy pursuit but the idea of doing some good for the world

Call the world, if you please, the vale of Soul-making. Then you will find out the use of the world.

Upon the forehead of humanity. All its more ponderous and bulky worth Is friendship

We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us—and if we do not agree, seems to put its hand in its breeches pocket. Poetry should be great & unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself but with its subject.

Ignatius, what's all this trash on the floor? That is my worldview that you see. It still must be incorporated into a whole, so be careful where you step.

This guy was a real Pscyho' Mr. Levy said. 'To you character is a psychosis, integrity is a complex. I've heard it all before.

Men can labor to make sense out of single steps toward the goal without ever pausing to reflect that the goal itself is ludicrous.

The income men derive from producing things of slight consequence is of great consequence to them.

I alone was a dream, a figment which had never really touched anything. I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.

Sentivo che non ero, non ero mai stato e non sarei mai stato una parte vivente di questo mondo straordinariamente solido e profondamente significativo che mi circonda.

It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life.