“Did you ever think about life as a metaphor for television?”

“Television is our culture's principal mode of knowing about itself. Therefore -- and this is the critical point -- how television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged. It is not merely that on the television screen entertainment is the metaphor for all discourse. It is that off the screen the same metaphor prevails. (92)”

“thinking about the misery of the world is a favourite contemporary occupation. and if you can't think the television set will think for you.”

“Have you ever thought about the grid of Manhattan?'It's like...a metaphor for life. You think you have the freedom to walk anywhere. But in fact... you are strictly controlled. Up or down. Left or right. Nothing in between. No other options.'Life should be like an open space...you should be able to walk in whatever direction you choose.”

“Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it.”

“Did you ever realize you have more opinions about my life than your own life?”