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“The alcohol smell is on my fingers, cold and remote, piercing like a steel pin going in. It smells like white enamel basins. When I look up at the stars in the nighttime, cold and white and sharp, I think they must smell like that.”
― Cat’s Eye
― Cat’s Eye
“Here's what I think, Mr. Wind-Up Bird," said May Kasahara. "Everybody's born with some different thing at the core of their existence. And that thing, whatever it is, becomes like a heat source that runs each person from the inside. I have one too, of course. Like everybody else. But sometimes it gets out of hand. It swells or shrinks inside me, and it shakes me up. What I'd really like to do is find a way to communicate that feeling to another person. But I can't seem to do it. They just don't get it. Of course, the problem could be that I'm not explaining it very well, but I think it's because they're not listening very well. They pretend to be listening, but they're not, really. So I get worked up sometimes, and I do some crazy things.”
― The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
― The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
―
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
―
“I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”
― The Picture of Dorian Gray
― The Picture of Dorian Gray
“There's blood, a taste I remember. It tastes of orange popsicles, penny gumballs, red licorice, gnawed hair, dirty ice.”
― Cat’s Eye
― Cat’s Eye
Quoth the Raven’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Quoth the Raven’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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Favorite Genres
Art, Business, Classics, Historical fiction, Spirituality, Travel, chess, math, law, coffee, magical realism, surrealism, film, psychedelia, Italy, Italian American, sweaters, unreliable narrators, troubled creative geniuses, former gifted children, women's relationships, folktales, fairy tales, ancient belief systems, naturalism, dance, old street communities, gondolas, gargoyles, Russian, mafia, 'Ndrangheta, Istanbul, revolutions in coffeehouses, revolution, French revolution, Camille desmoulins, Antoine de saint exupery, Romani people, accordions, counterculture, mountain villages, fishermen, judaism, unconscious mind, self esteem, spanish inquisition, cannolis, chocolate babkas, ancient Egypt, eve as a historical figure and spiritual symbol, the Rosetta Stone, espresso, history of canals, mandolins, Gabor Szabo, properties of flowers, mayan, and japan
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