MJ

“Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“I think the difference between a lie and a story is that a story utilizes the trappings and appearance of truth for the interest of the listener as well as of the teller. A story has in it neither gain nor loss. But a lie is a device for profit or escape. I suppose if that definition is strictly held to, then a writer of stories is a liar - if he is financially fortunate.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“escape is never further than the nearest book”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“It’s best to keep America just like that, always in the background, a sort of picture post card which you look at in a weak moment. Like that, you imagine it’s always there waiting for you, unchanged, unspoiled, a big patriotic open space with cows and sheep and tenderhearted men ready to bugger everything in sight, man, woman or beast. It doesn’t exist, America. It’s a name you give to an abstract idea…”
― Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer