Justin Banham

“I don’t trust people who cook from recipes,” said the stranger, as if he hadn’t heard him. “So whom do you trust?” asked Morini. “People who eat when they’re hungry, I guess,” said the stranger. Then”
― Roberto Bolaño, 2666

“Beings are the owners of their actions, the heirs of their actions; they spring from their actions, are bound to their actions, and are supported by their actions. Whatever deeds they do, good or bad, of those they shall be heirs.”
― Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering

“Remember, too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It’s the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more and play again, and so it goes with the world.”
― Alan Watts, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are