Forrest Gibbard

“Throughout my career I’ve lived in constant fear that I wouldn’t be good enough, that I’d have nothing to say, that I’d be laughed at, humiliated—and I’m old enough to know that fear will follow me to the very last word I’ll ever write. As for now, I feel the first itch of the novel I’m supposed to write—the grain of sand that irritates the soft tissues of the oyster. The beginning of the world as I don’t quite know it. But I trust I’ll begin to know it soon.”
― Pat Conroy, A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life

“Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb.”
― Thomas More, Utopia

“there is both fear and comfort to be drawn from devils--the fear speaks for itself, the comfort comes from being able to absolve oneself of responsibility for one's actions.”
― Iain Banks, Whit

“How complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Cat’s Cradle