“You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.”
― Infinite Jest
― Infinite Jest
“...Many years ago he had taken the passion he felt for Susan and folded it in half, so he no longer had a drowning, helpless feeling when he glimpsed her beside him in bed: her ropy arms and soft, generous ass. Then he'd folded it in half again, so when he felt desire for Susan, it no longer brought with it the edgy terror of never being satisfied. Then in half again, so that feeling desire entailed no immediate need to act. Then in half again, so he hardly felt it. His desire was so small in the end that Ted could slip it inside his desk or a pocket and forget about it, and this gave him a feeling of safety and accomplishment, having dismantled a perilous apparatus that might have crushed them both.”
― A Visit from the Goon Squad
― A Visit from the Goon Squad
“Don't forget the real business of war is buying and selling. The murdering and violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to non-professionals. The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways. It serves as spectacle, as diversion from the real movements of the War. It provides raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be more prepared for the adult world. Best of all, mass death's a stimolous to just ordinary folks, little fellows, to try 'n' grab a piece of that Pie while they're still here to gobble it up. The true war is a celebration of markets.”
― Gravity’s Rainbow
― Gravity’s Rainbow
“Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart.”
― The Light in the Heart
― The Light in the Heart
“You either need to accept the past as the building blocks that brought you right up to today, or you need to be a better liar.”
― The Glorious Heresies
― The Glorious Heresies
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Steve’s 2025 Year in Books
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