May 2013
3 posts
“Nothing, nothing is certain, except the insignificance of everything I can...”
– Leo Tolstoy | War and Peace | trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky | p. 293
“Besides, in order to tell everything as it had been, one would have to make an...”
– Leo Tolstoy | War and Peace | trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky | p. 242
“The mind is a strange and wonderful thing. I’m not sure it’ll ever...”
– Don Siegel | Invasion of the Body Snatchers
March 2013
1 post
“The German tutor tried to memorize all the kinds of dishes, desserts, and wines,...”
– Leo Tolstoy | War and Peace | trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky | p. 62
February 2013
4 posts
“During troubled times, superstition spawns bustling activity, and the ignorant...”
– Lao She | Rickshaw Boy | trans. Howard Goldblatt | p. 288
“Xiangzi’s friendship with tobacco and alcohol was rekindled. Without...”
– Lao She | Rickshaw Boy | trans. Howard Goldblatt | p. 274
“A man alone is nothing—a bird, perhaps, that falls into a trap when it tries to...”
– Lao She | Rickshaw Boy | trans. Howard Goldblatt | p. 183-184
“‘This isn’t about what is,’ said Mr. Nancy. ‘It’s...”
– Neil Gaiman | American Gods | p. 381
January 2013
7 posts
“The perfect man takes a false step, apparently commits a moral slip, and we...”
– R. K. Narayan | The Ramayana | p. 90
“All we have to believe with is our senses: the tools we use to perceive the...”
– Neil Gaiman | American Gods | p. 125
“Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are...”
– Neil Gaiman | American Gods | p. 54
“Anything electronic seemed fundamentally magical to Shadow, and liable to...”
– Neil Gaiman | American Gods | p. 15
“Cows are extremely stubborn beasts but they’re also very tolerant; they...”
– Ah Cheng | The King of Trees | “The King of Children” | trans. Bonnie S. McDougall | p. 136
“Food and shelter are basic needs, and since the dawn of the human race these two...”
– Ah Cheng | The King of Trees | “The King of Chess” | trans. Bonnie S. McDougall | p. 120
“Yes, what else did I need? Wasn’t I feeling fine at the moment? I...”
– Ah Cheng | The King of Trees | “The King of Chess” | trans. Bonnie S. McDougall | p. 82
September 2012
2 posts
“Never again follow false doctrines nor follow foolish courses, but know that the...”
– Wu Cheng’en | Monkey: Folk Novel of China | trans. Arthur Waley | p. 248
“Clear wine brings a blush to the cheeks;
Yellow gold moves even a philosophic...”
– Wu Cheng’en | Monkey: Folk Novel of China | trans. Arthur Waley | p. 187
August 2012
6 posts
“‘It sounds very difficult,’ said Monkey. ‘Nothing in the world...”
– Wu Cheng’en | Monkey: Folk Novel of China | trans. Arthur Waley | p. 26
“If you want to pass judgement on a man, you must first know all the facts about...”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “A Gentle Creature: A Fantastic Story” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 228
“And I’d like to add here that when these young people, these dear young...”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “A Gentle Creature: A Fantastic Story” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 222
“And, really, here am I already putting the idle question to myself—which is...”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “Notes From the Underground” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 211
“Life is sweet even in sorrow. It’s good to be alive, however hard life is.”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “Notes From the Underground” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 177
“But man is a frivolous and unaccountable creature, and perhaps, like a...”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “Notes From the Underground” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 123
June 2012
5 posts
“At any rate, civilisation has made man, if not more bloodthirsty, then certainly...”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “Notes From the Underground” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 114
“I am a sick man…. I am a spiteful man. No, I am not a pleasant man at all....”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “Notes From the Underground” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 95
“For to my thinking, sir, there’s no worse villain in the world than a...”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “The Honest Thief” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 62-63
“‘But how? How are we to be more sensible? Not that I have anything against...”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “White Nights” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 15
“I was walking along and singing, for when I am happy I always hum some tune to...”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky | The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | “White Nights” | trans. David Magarshack | p. 8
April 2012
16 posts
“Because what she disliked in men was not their eroticism, but their assumption...”
– Marian Engel | Bear | p. 96
“Trelawny wanted to find a poet, to know a poet, because he couldn’t be...”
– Marian Engel | Bear | p. 77
“She wondered if he, like herself, visualized transformations, waking every...”
– Marian Engel | Bear | p. 75
“‘I love you, bear,’ she said.”
– Marian Engel | Bear | p. 55
“It is well we cannot see into the future. There are few boys of fourteen who...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Memory.” | p. 91
“Let us have done with vain regrets and longings for the days that never will be...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Memory.” | p. 88
“Ah! we may talk sentiment as much as we like, but the stomach is the real seat...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Eating and Drinking.” | p. 71
“Even nowadays, though, the thirstiness of mankind is something supernatural. We...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Eating and Drinking.” | p. 69-70
“Foolish people—when I say ‘foolish people’ in this...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Eating and Drinking.” | p. 67
“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions, and...”
– The Twilight Zone | Season 1 | “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”
“Come, oh! my young brother bucks, let us be vain together. Let us join hands and...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Vanity and Vanities.” | p. 31
“I don’t believe any man ever existed without vanity, and if he did he...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Vanity and Vanities.” | p. 28-29
“Using Elsalill as a shield, Sir Archie ran for the door. A wild wolf of the...”
– Mauritz Stiller | Herr Arnes Pengar
“She could not betray him. He was dear to her heart. She could not send him to be...”
– Mauritz Stiller | Herr Arnes Pengar
“They dreamed of nothing and got nothing in return.”
– Okkervil River | Don’t Fall in Love with Everyone You See | “Okkervil River Song”
“Only a traitor
undresses his metaphors
As if they were whores”
– John Darnielle | Interview (in haiku) with Willamette Week | 15 June, 2005
March 2012
9 posts
“‘There’s a rank to everything,’ the man answered. ‘Some...”
– Yan Lianke | Dream of Ding Village | trans. Cindy Carter | p. 118
“I think I’ll go in and get a shave. I want to look proper on the day I...”
– The Twilight Zone | Season 1 | “Mr. Denton on Doomsday”
“There is no pathos in real misery: no luxury in real grief. We do not toy with...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Being in the Blues.” | p. 19
“Their fucking loss.”
– My father’s response to the news that i had been rejected from Columbia University’s PhD program in Religious Studies.
“Ah! how delicious it is to turn over and go to sleep again: ‘just for five...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Being Idle.” | p. 8
“Idling always has been my strong point. I take no credit to myself in the...”
– Jerome K. Jerome | Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow | “On Being Idle.” | p. 6 