Some things we are simply not supposed to acknowledge, or to state. For example, that we (all of us) from time to time say to ourselves: “Oh please, not that memory. Not now. Not now!”
Algernon Webb, A Speculative Autobiography.
Objectivity: As a goal, it is one of the worst forms of bigotry; thus, it is assiduously avoided by journalists.
Clive Morrow, A Crustacean’s Dictionary.
“If it is the job you really want to have, then you are unsuitable for it.” Monica was desperate to find just the right sentence to open the How-To book she hoped to write.
Jason Starling, ed., Adventures in Narrative Parsimony.
Show me one thing in this culture that is not rock ‘n’ roll. Show me one nook, one corner, one narrow corridor. Show me anything. Rock ‘n’ roll is conformity. And on an enormous scale.
Melanie George, A Phenomenology of Porn.
How does one say something that really matters? And notice, please, that I do not specify to whom it might matter. Nor will I address the when and the where of such a statement. But just this: How might one come upon those words—and that ordering of the words—that would present undeniable substance to an audience?
Victoria Salt, A Compendium of Opening Lines.
That communication between humans is possible does not hinge on our being able to see how it is possible.
Paul Uccelo, The Enigma of the Box.
“I don’t claim to be wise. Well, actually I do. It’s just that I am not wise.”
Sebastian Sleeve, The Random Walk and Other Stories.
What can be said about any “serious” painting today? That it is an advertisement for Contemporary Art.
Tobias Esterhase, Codes and Encoding.
The real world is a place of smudges and smears and complications. Classical Mechanics—indeed, Physical Chemistry itself—simultaneously accounts for that world and escapes it.
Forrest W. Wilhelm, A Reconsideration of Kinetics.
The weakness of any “theory” can be seen in the fact that we quickly find it too inconvenient to keep regarding it as theory. Soon enough, it must be taken as fact. (The tentative considered as a form of pain?) Of course, there is one alternative: the theory can be discarded.
Stefan Jannings, Prolegomena to Any Future.
dennis scharnberg 