Denise

“To have been part of a Pharaonic slave system that had at its apex a divine sun king led him to understand unreality as the greatest force in life. And his life was now, he felt, one monumental unreality, in which everything that did not matter—professional ambitions, the private pursuit of status, the colour of wallpaper, the size of an office or the matter of a dedicated car parking space—was vested with the greatest significance, and everything that did matter—pleasure, joy, friendship, love—was deemed somehow peripheral. It made for dullness mostly and weirdness generally.”
― Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

“He thought of how the world organises its affairs so that civilisation every day commits crimes for which any individual would be imprisoned for life. And how people accept this either by ignoring it and calling it current affairs or politics or wars,”
― Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

“Ulysses’. No one reads him anymore. No one reads anything anymore. They think Browning is a gun.”
― Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein