William O. II > William's Quotes

“You should never read just for "enjoyment." Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends' insane behavior, or better yet, your own. Pick "hard books." Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for god's sake, don't let me ever hear you say, "I can't read fiction. I only have time for the truth." Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of "literature"? That means fiction, too, stupid.”
― John Waters, Role Models

“I should have written you a letter, it was too late to make the deaths of my brothers an excuse. Since they died, I wrote a book; why not a letter? A mysterious but truthful answer is that while I can gear myself up to do a novel, letters, real-life communications, are too much for me. I used to rattle them off easily enough; why is the challenge of writing to friends and acquaintances too much for me now? Because I have become such a solitary, and not in the Aristotelian sense: not a beast, not a god. Rather, a loner troubled by longings, incapable of finding a suitable language and despairing at the impossibility of composing messages in a playable key--as if I no longer understood the codes used by the estimable people who wanted to hear from me and would have so much to reply if only the impediments were taken away.”
― Saul Bellow

“Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.”
― Joe Biden

“testament to the human capacity to adapt (or, less charitably, to our ability to operate in ignorance).”
― Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

“The gods of the Greeks were like helpless children compared to humankind today and the powers we now wield.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

“For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue…as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

“After all, as Edward Tufte once said, “Overload, clutter, and confusion are not attributes of information, they are failures of design.”
― Golden Krishna, Best Interface Is No Interface, The: The simple path to brilliant technology