“We do not talk - we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests. ”
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“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves.... It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“I’m an egotist, but I’m not selfish. There’s a difference. I’m a neurotic, I guess. I can’t stop thinking about myself. It isn’t that I think myself so important... I simply can’t think about anything else, that’s all. If I could fall in love with a woman that might help some. But I can’t find a woman who interests me.”
― Tropic of Cancer
― Tropic of Cancer
“No one asks you to throw Mozart out of the window. Keep Mozart. Cherish him. Keep Moses too, and Buddha and Lao Tzu and Christ. Keep them in your heart. But make room for the others, the coming ones, the ones who are already scratching on the window-panes.”
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“To have her here in bed with me, breathing on me, her hair in my mouth—I count that something of a miracle.”
― Tropic of Cancer
― Tropic of Cancer
Ivan’s 2025 Year in Books
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