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The Dividing Line [between Friends And Acquaintances] Is Communication, I Think. A Friend Is Someone To Whom You Can Say Any Jackass Thing That Enters Your Mind. With Acquaintances, You Are Forever Aware Of Their Slightly Unreal Image Of You, And To Keep Them Content, You Edit Yourself To Fit. Many Marriages Are Between Acquaintances. You Can Be With A Person For Three Hours Of Your Life And Have A Friend. Another Will Remain An Acquaintance For Thirty Years.

-John D. MacDonald

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The Dividing Line [between

John D. MacDonald

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The Dividing Line [between Friends And Acquaintances] Is Communication, I Think. A Friend Is Someone To Whom You Can Say Any Jackass Thing That Enters Your Mind. With Acquaintances, You Are Forever Aware Of Their Slightly Unreal Image Of You, And To Keep Them Content, You Edit Yourself To Fit. Many Marriages Are Between Acquaintances. You Can Be With A Person For Three Hours Of Your Life And Have A Friend. Another Will Remain An Acquaintance For Thirty Years.

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My Purpose Is To Entertain Myself First And Other People Secondly.

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This Was Not Some Pretty Little Girl, Coyly Flirtatious, Delicately Stimulated. This Was The Mature Female Of The Species, Vivid, Handsome And Strong Demanding That All The Life Within Her Be Matched. Her Instinct Would Detect Any Hedging, Any Dishonesty, Any Less Than Complete Response To Her - And Then She Would Be Gone For Good.

You Have To Start Knowing Yourself So Well That You Begin To Know Other People. A Piece Of Us Is In Every Person We Can Ever Meet.

If The Cards Are Stacked Against You, Reshuffle The Deck.

I Am Wary Of The Whole Dreary Deadening Structured Mess That We Have Built Into Such A Glittering Top-heavy Structure That There Is Nothing Left To See But The Glitter, And The Brute Routines Of Maintaining It.

We Have Been Endowed With The Capacity And The Power To Create Desirable Pictures Within And To Find Them Automatically In The Outer World Of Our Environment.

...it Isn't Foolish Or Wicked To Enjoy. Wickedness Is Hurting People On Purpose. I Love What You Are And Who You Are And How You Are. You Give Me Great Joy. And You Make Horrible Coffee.

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The Only Thing That Prisons Demonstrably Cure Is Heterosexuality.

Heterosexuality

Way Over Half The Murders Committed In This Country Are By Close Friends Or Relatives Of The Deceased. A Gun Makes A Loud And Satisfying Noise In A Moment Of Passion And Requires No Agility And Very Little Strength. How Many Murders Wouldn't Happen, If They All Had To Use Hammers And Knives?

Being An Adult Means Accepting Those Situations Where No Action Is Possible.

I Want Story, Wit, Music, Wryness, Color, And A Sense Of Reality In What I Read, And I Try To Get It In What I Write.

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Integrity Is Not A Conditional Word. It Doesn't Blow In The Wind Or Change With The Weather. It Is Your Inner Image Of Yourself, And If You Look In There And See A Man Who Won't Cheat, Then You Know He Never Will.

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In The Morning I'm Often Anti-semantic.

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Up With Life. Stamp Out All Small And Large Indignities. Leave Everyone Alone To Make It Without Pressure. Down With Hurting. Lower The Standard Of Living. Do Without Plastics. Smash The Servo-mechanisms. Stop Grabbing. Snuff The Breeze And Hug The Kids. Love All Love. Hate All Hate.

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The Dividing Line [between Friends And Acquaintances] Is Communication, I Think. A Friend Is Someone To Whom You Can Say Any Jackass Thing That Enters Your Mind. With Acquaintances, You Are Forever Aware Of Their Slightly Unreal Image Of You, And To Keep Them Content, You Edit Yourself To Fit. Many Marriages Are Between Acquaintances. You Can Be With A Person For Three Hours Of Your Life And Have A Friend. Another Will Remain An Acquaintance For Thirty Years.

New York Is Where It Is Going To Begin, I Think. You Can See It Coming. The Insect Experts Have Learned How It Works With Locusts. Until Locust Population Reaches A Certain Density, They All Act Like Any Grasshoppers. When The Critical Point Is Reached, They Turn Savage And Swarm, And Try To Eat The World. We're Nearing A Critical Point. One Day Soon Two Strangers Will Bump Into Each Other At High Noon In The Middle Of New York. But This Time They Won't Snarl And Go On. They Will Stop And Stare And Then Leap At Each Others

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