Mason Cooley

“Was there little time between the invention of language and the coming of true and false?”

“A happy arrangement: many people prefer cats to other people, and many cats prefer people to other cats.”

“Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.”

“Innocence is thought charming because it offers delightful possibilities for exploitation.”

“Treat unhappiness as a defect and fewer would embrace it”

“There are different rules for reading, for thinking, and for talking. Writing blends all three of them.”

“Cure for an obsession: get another one.”

“Promiscuity is like never reading past the first page. Monogamy is like reading the same book over and over.”

“Truth can remain silent. Lies must be spoken.”

“The real secrets are not the ones I tell.”

“To understand a literary style, consider what it omits.”

“Reading gives us somewhere to go when we have to stay where we are.”

“Don't sacrifice yourself for me. I will not be grateful.”

“Experience teaches us, but we scarcely know what.”

“Faith moves mountains but you have to keep pushing while you are praying.”

“Why not - is a slogan for an interesting life.”

“Children pay little attention to their parents' teachings, but reproduce their characters faithfully”

“Sometimes I discover I have changed my mind because I have forgotten what I used to think.”

“Outside books, we avoid colorful characters.”

“Writing about an idea frees me of it. Thinking about it is a circle of repetitions.”

“Reading gives us some place to go when we have to stay where we are.”

“Regret for wasted time is more wasted time ”

“ Fantasy mirrors desire. Imagination reshapes it.”

“When you can't figure out what to do, it's time for a nap.”

“Every book teaches a lesson, even if the lesson is only that one has chosen the wrong book. ”

“Flattery and insults raise the same question: what do you want?”

“After desolation, grief brings back our humanity”

“True self is the part of us that does not change when circumstances do.”

“silence is the most intolerable of answers.”

“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”

“I tried good taste, but the strain was too much for me. ”

“If I can't serve as a role model, let me serve as a warning.”