“Disneyland remains the central attraction of Southern California, but the graveyard remains our reality.”

“Southern California is the land of crazy crimes.”

“Ambitions tend to Remain undisturbed by Realities.”

“We could decide simply to remain absorbed in the mysterious, unformed, free-play of reality. This would be the choice of the mystic who seeks to extinguish himself in God or Nirvana—analogous perhaps to the tendency among artists to obliterate themselves with alcohol or opiates. But if we value our participation in a shared reality in which it makes sense to make sense, then such self-abnegation would deny a central element of our humanity: the need to speak and act, to share our experience with others.”

“There was nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure.”

“Southern California doesn't know whether to bustle or just strangle itself on the spot.”