Abigail > Recent Status Updates

'The 2-Man seniormost males' bedroom has a bunch of old AA bumper-stickers on it and a calligraphic poster saying EVERYTHING I'VE EVER LET GO OF HAS CLAW MARKS ON IT' (606).

'He told Gately to just imagine for a second that he's holding a box of Betty Crocker Cake Mix, which represented Boston AA. The box came with directions on the side any eight-year-old could read. [...] Gene M. said all Gately had to do was for fuck's sake give himself a break and relax and for once shut up and just follow the directions on the side of the fucking box' (467).

[D]idn't seem just a whole hell of a lot happier or tighter wrapped than his own failed father, leaving yourself in a kind of feral and flux-ridden state with respect to talent (173).

'When you've made up your mind, no use lagging behind, go ahead and no relenting'!

'If one were properly to perform a difficult and subtle act, he should first inspect the end to be achieved and then, once he had accepted the end as desirable, he should forget it completely and concentrate solely on the means. [...] Very few people learn this' (292).

I have no resentment at all this, just a feeling that it's all unreal and that the quality of the lake is smothered by the fact that it's so pointed to. You point to something as having Quality and the Quality tends to go away (324).

Deep in the human unconsciousness is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic (402).

The vision made him want to freeze into immobility, but this, too, was action with its consequences (317).

Truth is not always in a well. [...] By undue profundity we perplex and enfeeble thought; and it is possible to make even Venus herself vanish from the firmament by a scrutiny too sustained, too concentrated, or too direct (117).