John Barth Quotes
Nothing is intrinsically valuable; the value of everything is attributed to it, assigned to it from outside the thing itself, by people.
Quotes to Explore
-
It's for scientists to lay out the data and lay out what they think, and then it's for the public to make up its own mind. We don't live in a priesthood where some small group imposes its views on other people - that's not the way that science works, and it's not the way a democratic society should work.
-
Life does not owe me a shred.
-
Even though I am the daughter of a poet, and my stepmother is also a poet, growing up, I didn't think I could understand poetry; I didn't think that it had any relevance to my life, the feelings that I endured on a day-to-day basis, until I was introduced to the right poem.
-
I grew up thinking there was something called 'independent film,' which I wouldn't necessarily have had access to if there wasn't Sundance.
-
My writing is a very authentic journey of discovery. I'm going out there to learn who I am. My readers, consequently, take the same journey as my protagonist.
-
Big Business can make laws as easily as it can break them - and with as little impunity.
-
I don't find anything upsetting or gross or degrading about fighting with a mental illness: Bipolar or Schizophrenia.
-
From age 16, I lived and breathed wine. I read every magazine and book about wine.
-
I think about death most of the day, every day. We can't escape death, and choosing to ignore it only makes it more scary.
-
Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves.
-
There is no more respected or influential forum in the field of journalism than the New York Times. I look forward, with great anticipation, to contributing to its op-ed page.
-
I firmly believe that the mission of religion in the 21st century must be to contribute concretely to the peaceful coexistence of humankind.
-
Whatever our bedtime was as kids, we could stay up an extra half hour if we were reading. My parents didn't care as long as I was under the spell of a Stephen King or a Douglas Adams. Now I read in bed. I read at work. I read standing in line. It's like, 'Hello, my name is Nathan and I am a reader.'
-
I procrastinate all morning. That's when I get my office work done and answer e-mails and see what's on the Internet and do laundry.
-
The physicians of one class feel the patients and go away, merely prescribing medicine. As they leave the room they simply ask the patient to take the medicine. They are the poorest class of physicians.
-
As awful as crime can be, it's what happens afterward - the struggling to get out of bed, to put one foot in front of the other - that alters people.
-
The more I push myself to really live and really experience things and step outside of my comfort zone, the more the songs are allowed to flow.
-
Real riches are the riches possessed inside.
-
I never really ate greens, what I always did do was I always ate peanut butter and honey and I ate it all day. There's not much nutritional value in that. I just love peanut butter and I love honey so I just put them together.
-
God, you mean I lost my virginity to the apocalypse?" Morgan sighed again. "The whole thing was really embarrassing; my parents sent me to Brooklyn when they found out." She shrugged. "I thought I’d be safe in a gay bar, okay? What were you doing in there anyway?" Lace looked at me sidelong. "You were where?" I took a sip of beer, swallowed it. "I, uh, hadn’t been in the city...very long. I didn’t know.
-
I had a baby with no pain medicine, mainly because most people I talked to didn't think I'd be able to do it. So there!
-
I don't necessarily want kids. A lot of our friends are having children and I don't know if it's for me. I haven't come down hardcore on either side of the argument. I think when people come from a stable family having children becomes a celebration and I'm not sure it would be that way for me.
-
People have been marrying and bringing up children for centuries now. Nothing has ever come of it.
-
Nothing is intrinsically valuable; the value of everything is attributed to it, assigned to it from outside the thing itself, by people.
