“California is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension; in which the mind is troubled by some buried but ineradicable suspicion that things better work here, because here, beneath the immense bleached sky,is where we run out of continent.”
―
―
“It was once suggested to me that, as an antidote to crying, I put my head in a paper bag. As it happens, there is a sound physiological reason, something to do with oxygen, for doing exactly that, but the psychological effect alone is incalculable: it is difficult in the extreme to continue fancying onceself Cathy in "Wuthering Heights" with one's head in a Food Fair bag.”
― Slouching Towards Bethlehem
― Slouching Towards Bethlehem
“Anything with the power to make you laugh over thirty years later isn’t a waste of time. I think something like that is very close to immortality.”
― Hearts in Atlantis
― Hearts in Atlantis
“The mind of a writer can be a truly terrifying thing. Isolated, neurotic, caffeine-addled, crippled by procrastination, consumed by feelings of panic, self-loathing, and soul-crushing inadequacy. And that’s on a good day."
[Academy Award ceremony, March 2, 2014]”
―
[Academy Award ceremony, March 2, 2014]”
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“Forget about what you are escaping from. Reserve your anxiety for what you are escaping to.”
― The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
― The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Elaine’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Elaine’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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