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For An Adult, Eating Alone At Mcdonald's Is Admitting A Kind Of Defeat.

-Jonathan Carroll

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For An Adult, Eating

Jonathan Carroll

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For An Adult, Eating Alone At Mcdonald's Is Admitting A Kind Of Defeat.

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I Find You Write With One Person In Mind. Usually For Me That One Person Is My Wife, Because She's My Most Severe Critic And Understands Best What I'm Trying To Do.

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If You Are Very Lucky, You're Allowed To Be In Certain Places During Just The Right Season Of Your Life: By The Sea For The Summer When You're Seven Or Eight And Full Of The Absolute Need To Swim Until Dark And Exhaustion Close Their Hands Together, Cupping You In Between.

I Write About What Interests Me. It's Very Dangerous When You Try To Satisfy An Audience.

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I Read Less Of Everything Now. With Only Fond Memories Of Others' Work, It Will Be Interesting To Give My Own Journal Writing A Try Now.

A Short Story Is A Sprint, A Novel Is A Marathon. Sprinters Have Seconds To Get From Here To There And Then They Are Finished. Marathoners Have To Carefully Pace Themselves So That They Don't Run Out Of Energy (or In The Case Of The Novelist-- Ideas) Because They Have So Far To Run. To Mix The Metaphor, Writing A Short Story Is Like Having A Short Intense Affair, Whereas Writing A Novel Is Like A Long Rich Marriage.

The Fact That I’m Silent Doesn’t Mean I Have Nothing To Say.

If I Don't Feel Like Writing Today Or For A Few Days, I Don't. And I Don't Think About It. It Is Not An Obligation-it Is The Greatest Privilege.

In Poland, My Audience Is All Women Between 18 And 30. At U.s. Conventions, You Have The Fantasy And Science Fiction Crowd. At Harvard You Have An Entirely Different Audience. It's So Schizophrenic.

Most Men, No Matter How Well Or Badly Dressed, Carry Overstuffed, Beat Up Wallets That Should Have Been Replaced Years Ago. Why Is That? Every Time I See A Guy Take Out A Wallet Anywhere, It Looks Like A Piece Of Old Melted Chocolate Cake-with Strings.

At The End Of Their Relationship She Asked If They Could Still Remain Friends. His Face Stayed Expressionless Until He Said "no. Because We Put Friends In Boxes. You See Them Once In A While, Or Even A Lot, But Still They Have Their Box In Your Life, Their Specific Place. Their *category.* That's One Of The Great Things About Being Someone's Love-- You Have No Box In Their Life Because You're Part Of All Their Boxes. You're Their Friend, Their Lover, Their Confidante-- All Those Things. I Don't Want To Be Put In One Of Your Boxes And I Don't Want To Shrink You To Fit Into One Of Mine.

There's Almost Always A Point In A Book Where Something Happens That Triggers The Rest Of The Plot.

Lying Is Too Much Trouble. You Have To Make Sure To Taste Each Word Before Letting It Off Your Tongue. I Hate That. It's Hard Enough Making People Understand Without Lying.

For An Adult, Eating Alone At Mcdonald's Is Admitting A Kind Of Defeat.

Death Doesn't Make You Sad- It Makes You Empty. That's What's So Bad About It. All Of Your Charms And Beliefs And Funny Habits Fall Fast Through A Big Black Hole, And Suddenly You Know They're Gone Because Just As Suddenly, There's Nothing Left At All Inside.

Buying A Pair Of Shoes Is One Of The Most Optimistic Acts I Know, Next To Falling In Love. I Like Nothing Better Than To See An Old Man Wearing A Brand New Pair Of Brogues Or Cap-toed Oxfords, Preferably Jaunty Orange-brown, Unscuffed, Heels Unworn. We Want To Be Here Tomorrow, But Buying New Shoes, Like Falling In Love, Says I Plan On Being Here Tomorrow.

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Sometimes You Have To Give Up On People. Not Because You Don't Care, But Because They Don't.

If You Are A Success In Life, There Are Places You Must Go And Pay To Be Humiliated. It Is An Unwritten Law That Human Beings Must Be Tormented Throughout Their Lives In One Way Or Another. If You Are Fortunate Enough To Have Risen To A Social Level Where No One Does It To You For Free, Then You Must Pay For The Service.

Real Love Is Always Chaotic. You Lose Control; You Lose Perspective. You Lose The Ability To Protect Yourself. The Greater The Love, The Greater The Chaos. It’s A Given And That’s The Secret.

Although Our Emotions Sometimes Behave Like Spoiled, Selfish Children, Unfortunately We Cannot Send Them To Their Room Or Tell Them To Stop Screaming.

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Reading A Book, For Me At Least, Is Like Traveling In Someone Else's World. If It's A Good Book, Then You Feel Comfortable And Yet Anxious To See What's Going To Happen To You There, What'll Be Around The Next Corner. But If It's A Lousy Book, Then It's Like Going Through Secaucus, New Jersey -- It Smells And You Wish You Weren't There, But Since You've Started The Trip, You Roll Up The Windows And Breathe Through Your Mouth Until You're Done.

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Black And White

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