30 books
—
116 voters
Oliver Bateman
rated a book it was amazing
Reading for the 2nd time
Oliver Bateman said:
"
If you grew up in the deep, dreamy south, this glorious collection of essays--once considered an important cultural statement--is bucolic nostalgia nonpareil.
"
“A high station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace.”—Tennessee Williams
“…you know, sometimes an electric lightbulb goes out all of a sudden. Fizzles, you say. And this burned-out bulb, if you shake it, it flashes again and it’ll burn a little longer. Inside the bulb it’s a disaster. The wolfram filaments are breaking up, and when the fragments touch, life returns to the bulb. A brief, unnatural, undeniably doomed life—a fever, a too-bright incandescence, a flash. The comes the darkness, life never returns, and in the darkness the dead, incinerated filaments are just going to rattle around. Are you following me? But the brief flash is magnificent!
“I want to shake…
“I want to shake the heart of a fizzled era. The lightbulb of the heart, so that the broken pieces touch…
“…and produce a beautiful, momentary flash…”
― Envy
“I want to shake…
“I want to shake the heart of a fizzled era. The lightbulb of the heart, so that the broken pieces touch…
“…and produce a beautiful, momentary flash…”
― Envy
“He wishes he had never entered the funhouse. But he has. Then he wishes he were dead. But he's not. Therefore he will construct funhouses for others and be their secret operator -- though he would rather be among the lovers for whom funhouses are designed.”
― Lost in the Funhouse
― Lost in the Funhouse
“Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life. ”
― The Phantom Tollbooth
― The Phantom Tollbooth
“You pigs, you. You rut like pigs, is all. You got the most in you, and you use the least. You hear me, you? Got a million in you and spend pennies. Got a genius in you and think crazies. Got a heart in you and feel empties. All a you. Every you...”
― The Stars My Destination
― The Stars My Destination
“I read it [history] a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all — it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.”
― Northanger Abbey
― Northanger Abbey
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