Simon

“And what would you do with yourself to pass the time away?" I once asked. "What would I do?" she repeated in astonishment. "I would do nothing. I would just live."
What an idea! What a sane idea! I envied her phlegm, her indolence, her insouciance. I would urge her to talk about it at length, about doing nothing, I mean. It was an ideal I had never flirted with. To accomplish it one must have an empty mind, or else a full rich one. It would be better, I used to think, to have an empty mind.”
― Henry Miller, Quiet Days in Clichy

“Ze heeft me uitgelegd dat je niet moet zeggen 'met elkaar naar bed gaan', maar 'met 'met elkaar intiem zijn'... En dit zijn we nu geweest, o mijn god! En ik zal het voortaan altijd zo noemen, geloof me, schat.”
― Willem Frederik Hermans, In de mist van het schimmenrijk: Fragmenten uit het oorlogsdagboek van de student Karel R.

“He took her in in his arms and kissed her. The coffeepot boiled over and they laughed and laughed with the simple foolish joy of being alive.”
― Morris L. West, Daughter of Silence

“Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering self, and the experiencing self, who does my living, is like a stranger to me.”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow