Angela Emery

“Now and then I have expressed the opinion that every nation, and every person, would do better, instead of rocking himself to sleep with political catchwords about war-guilt, to ask himself how far his own faults and negligencies and evil tendencies are guilty of the war and all the other wrongs of the world, and that there lies the only possible means of avoiding the next war.”
― Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

“The secret to a good life", he told me once, "is to bring your A game to everything you do. Even if all you're doing is taking out the garbage, you do that with excellence".”
― Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“Two thirds of my countrymen read this kind of newspaper, read things written in this tone every morning and every night, are every day worked up and admonished and incited, and robbed of their peace of mind and better feelings by them, and the end and aim of it all is to have the war over again, the next war that draws nearer and nearer, and it will be a good deal more horrible than the last. All that is perfectly clear and simple. Anyone could comprehend it and reach the same conclusion after a moment's reflection. But nobody wants to. Nobody wants to avoid the next war, nobody wants to spare himself and his children the next holocaust if this be the cost. To reflect for one moment, to examine himself for a while and ask what share he has in the world's confusions and wickedness - clearly, nobody wants to do that. And so there's no stopping it, and the next war is being pushed on with enthusiasm by thousands upon thousands day by day.”
― Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

“Adolescence feeds on drama, it is most happy when living in extremis, and Ferguson was no less vulnerable to the lure of high emotion and extravagant unreason than any other boy his age, which meant the appeal of a girl like Anne-Marie was fuelled precisely by her unhappiness, and the greater the storms she engulfed him in, the more he wanted her.”
― Paul Auster, 4 3 2 1