Terence McKenna (Terence Kemp McKenna) Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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It is easy to remove the mind from harping on the lost illusion of immortality. The disciplined intellect fears nothing and craves no sugar-plum at the day's end, but is content to accept life and serve society as best it may.
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Art is too serious to be taken seriously.
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There's nothing unnatural in creation.
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Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.
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Living in New York, for me at least, just keeps it very real and keeps my feet firmly planted on the ground.
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Time is the ultimate long tail. Even with a big wad of money up front, if something sells forever, the back end is what ultimately counts.
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I never wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a book illustrator. I used to hurry home from school and draw.
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The most romantic thing someone did was surprise me at the airport, after being away for 3 months in Los Angeles. You always see people with signs, and you're like, 'Isn't that lovely?' and then you see your own name on one - that isn't a taxi driver's! I was very impressed.
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Moderate people are able to be moderate and have free speech only because there are some people on the fringe.
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One thing I've done is surround myself with people who are as good as me or better.
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I'm usually woken up by the birds and by my schnauzer, Rafa - for me that's the best start to the day. I jump out of bed, throw on some clothes, and race to the polo ground.
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Any athlete has massive reserves in their body and their emotional landscape.
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In fiction, a reaction shot is a brief portrayal of how your character reacts to something that someone else has done. In contrast to more direct character building, your guy doesn't initiate the sequence; he completes it. Exactly how he completes it can tell readers a lot about him.
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The Queen's wedding dress in 1947, there was some embroidery on the train which was definitely there to illustrate new dawn/post-war optimism, that sort of thing.
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I'm a lot more interested in people than I used to be. I used to be most interested in abstract ideas, and people were an afterthought, but that's changed a bit.
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If you have drive and energy, everything is possible.
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I base jumped off one of the highest buildings in the world.
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Too many people focus on writing what they think they should write, what should be in a song, what radio would want.
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What would be ugly in a garden constitutes beauty in a mountain.
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In Salford, we had fish in our tap water. I remember, one hot summer day, running to the toilet at playtime and dunking our heads in a sink full of water. I remember putting my head in and seeing all these little fish in it.
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I will go through these style phases. I think it's confusing in some ways. People like bands to be really consistent.
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The fact I have an education forms my lyrical style, I'm sure. I studied the social sciences, history, stuff like that. I have an interest in politics, which maybe works its way into the songs in small, subtle ways.
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I think it would be nice to see more of an open culture to different music.
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Is there a necessary succession in style, or are these things pure chance?
