T.C. Boyle on the Necessity of Surprises

“There are always surprises. Life may be inveterately grim and the surprises disproportionately unpleasant, but it would be hardly worth living if there were no exceptions, no sunny days, no acts of random kindness.”

~ T.C. Boyle, (aka Tom Coraghessan Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948), The Tortilla Curtain

Source: GoodReads

Douglas Adams on Saving the World

“We don’t have to save the world. The world is big enough to look after itself. What we have to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it.”

~ Douglas Adams

Source: WikiQuote

Cory Doctorow on the People of the Book

“We are the people of the book. We love our books. We fill our houses with books. We treasure books we inherit from our parents, and we cherish the idea of passing those books on to our children. Indeed, how many of us started reading with a beloved book that belonged to one of our parents? We force worthy books on our friends, and we insist that they read them. We even feel a weird kinship for the people we see on buses or airplanes reading our books, the books that we claim. If anyone tries to take away our books—some oppressive government, some censor gone off the rails—we would defend them with everything that we have. We know our tribespeople when we visit their homes because every wall is lined with books. There are teetering piles of books beside the bed and on the floor; there are masses of swollen paperbacks in the bathroom. Our books are us. They are our outboard memory banks and they contain the moral, intellectual, and imaginative influences that make us the people we are today.”

Cory Doctorow, (born 17 July 1971)

Source: Writers Write Creative Blog,”Literary Birthday – 17 July – Cory Doctorow”

Lillian Hellman on Cynicism

“Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.”

~ Lillian Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984)

Source: A Quotation: Lillian Hellman

Neil Gaiman’s Wishes for Your Coming Year

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

~ Neil Gaiman

Source: GoodReads

Ève Curie on Peace at Any Price

“We discovered that peace at any price is no peace at all…that life at any price has no value whatever; that life is nothing without the privileges, the prides, the rights, the joys that make it worth living and also worth giving…and that there is something more hideous, more atrocious than war or than death; and that is to live in fear.”

~ Ève Curie (born Ève Denise Curie Labouisse, December 6, 1904 – October 22, 2007)

Source: GoodReads

Theodora Goss on People and Adventures

‎”I think there are people who don’t have adventures, and people who have adventures, and (rarest of all) people who are adventures.”

~ Theodora Goss

Source: Theodora Goss on Facebook

George Saunders on the Sameness of Life

“I don’t think much new ever happens. Most of us spend our days the same way people spent their days in the year 1000: walking around smiling, trying to earn enough to eat, while neurotically doing these little self-proofs in our head about how much better we are than these other slobs, while simultaneously, in another part of our brain, secretly feeling woefully inadequate to these smarter, more beautiful people.”

~George Saunders (born December 2, 1958)

Source: Successories: iQuote

Jack Kerouac on People

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”

~ Jack Kerouac, born Jean-Louis Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), On the Road

Source: American Society of Authors and Writers, It Happened in History: Jack Kerouac

 

Lucy Maud Montgomery on the Indefatigability of Dreams

“You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams.”

~ Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), The Road to Yesterday

Source: GoodReads