Seth Kaufman > Quotes

“Walter, my first wife, Laila, used to throw around a quote. I don't know who said it first, but it went something like, 'If men menstruated, there would floating federal holidays for them.”
― Seth Kaufman, The King of Pain: A Novel With Stories

“The one good thing about pain is that while you can remember it, you can't recreate it; you can't truly think it into recurring. You can rate it in retrospect—a toothache vs. banging your funny bone—but it doesn't work the way words or music do. You can hear things in your head, voices, music, over and over. You can close your eyes and visualize a place. But pain, the experience of it, either is or isn't. You are in pain, or you aren’t.”
― Seth Kaufman, The King of Pain: A Novel With Stories

“I shake my head at this memory and am rewarded with the sensation that my lobes have somehow split apart and are now merrily banging against each other like a pair of castanets.”
― Seth Kaufman, The King of Pain: A Novel With Stories

“Not engaging is the most frustrating thing to a protestor, right? “Guns don’t kill people! People kill people!” he yells. Of course this line almost stops me. Should I have a conversation with this sad sack about the disingenuousness of this statement? Should I hold a two-minute seminar on the many machines, chemicals and drugs that are strictly monitored because of their potential lethal power? Should I point out that we don’t let people walk around with heroin or bombs or cyanide or mercury, or let just anyone pilot helicopters or cruise ships or 18-wheelers? But why bother with this guy? A discussion in causation or semantics isn’t going to change his mind.”
― Seth Kaufman, Nuns with Guns

“Oh my,” said Sister Rosemarie.”
― Seth Kaufman, Nuns with Guns

“Asked why she wanted to appear on Nuns with Guns, she said: “The prevalence of guns makes us all unsafe. It robs us of our children and loved ones. Guns are the leading cause of violent death in impoverished communities and for battered women. It gives men the power of life and death, but I know only one Being who is worthy of such power.”
― Seth Kaufman, Nuns with Guns