Quotes About Engagement

T[he rules of writing] require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.

Does Jane Austen do her work too remorselessly well? For me, I mean? Maybe that is it. She makes me detest all her people, without reserve. Is that her intention? It is not believable. Then is it her purpose to make the reader detest her people up to the middle of the book and like them in the rest of the chapters? That could be. That would be high art. It would be worth while, too. Some day I will examine the other end of her books and see.

A great and priceless thing is a new interest! How it takes possession of a man! how it clings to him, how it rides him!

Not because his troubles were one whit less heavy and bitter to him than a man's are to a man, but because a new and powerful interest bore them down and drove them out of his mind for the time—just as men's misfortunes are forgotten in the excitement of new enterprises.

They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the Deerslayer tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.

Never argue with stupid people, because they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. - Mark Twain

He would now have comprehended that work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

Within two minutes, or even less, he had forgotten all his troubles. Not because his troubles were one whit less heavy and bitter to him than a man's are to a man, but because a new and powerful interest bore them down and drove them out of his mind for the time—just as men's misfortunes are forgotten in the excitement of new enterprises.

The passengers are not garrulous, but still they are sociable.

For me to have sat around calling the crazy stuff crazy would have been the most wasteful, unimaginative thing I could have done. There were so many much better things to do with it.

Being a good conversationalist is really what a liberal arts education is all about.

Start living right here, in each present moment. When we stop dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, we're open to rich sources of information we've been missing out on—information that can keep us out of the downward spiral and poised for a richer life.

Hello? That was the first word she ever said to me in the Shop. Not like Hi either. More like Hello, is anyone home? hence the question mark. I wasn't even looking at her when she said it, just staring blankly down at my equally blank pad of tracing paper, probably thinking something similar to all those ridiculous, sappy thoughts I just now recounted, about road trips and forest fires and motorcycles, remembering her, even though she was right there in front of me, only a few feet away.

She kept watching the words.

Cómo no va a gustarle a alguien un hombre que no sólo se fija en los colores, sino que además los comenta.

I'm spoiling the ending, not only of the entire book, but of this particular piece of it. I have given you two events in advance, because I don't have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me.

For at least twenty minutes, she handed out the story.

Do you still play the accordian?

The problem with a book is that you never know what it's planning to do to you until you're too far into it.

All media work us over completely.

Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either.

Playboy : Have you ever taken LSD yourself? McLUHAN : No, I never have. I'm an observer in these matters, not a participant.

Your life follows your attention. Wherever you look, you end up going.

according to some medical psychologists, it's physiologically impossible for your mind to stay locked in a war of control when you're engaging its ability to generate compassion and appreciation.