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Quote Me A Piece Of Writing That You Really, Really Love :)

The lights went down, the bottom of the curtain glowed. I loved it and have always loved it best of all, the moment when the lights goes down, the curtain glows, you know that something wonderful is going to happen. It doesn’t matter if what happens next spoils everything; the anticipation itself is always pure.
 
I absolutely love Catch 22. There are so many quotes from the book.

“Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.”

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”

“...[A]nything worth dying for ... is certainly worth living for.”

“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.”


“The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he is on.”


“There's nothing mysterious about it, He's not working at all. He's playing. Or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk about, a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of Creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did He ever create pain?”

“You know, that might be the answer – to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That’s a trick that never seems to fail.”
 
The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel, and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides. And a dark wind blows. The government is corrupt, and we're on so many drugs with the radio on and the curtains drawn. We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine and the machine is bleeding to death. The sun has fallen down and the billboards are all leering, and the flags are all dead at the top of their poles. It went like this: the buildings tumbled in on themselves, mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble and pulled out their hair. The skyline was beautiful on fire, all twisted metal stretching upwards, everything washed in a thin orange haze. I said, "Kiss me, you're beautiful; these are truly the last days". You grabbed my hand, and we fell into it. Like a daydream. Or a fever. We woke up one morning and fell a little further down, for sure is the valley of Death. I open up my wallet and it's full of blood.
 
Nature's intention sometimes seems to be that all should be forgotten, that there should be no trace of a human event. Sometimes it seems that the pulse of all living creatures comes from a voluntary rebellion against that supreme intention, which longs for emptiness or only the rub of wind against wind. Sometimes all the varieities of wildflower, fern, pool and sea seem to spring from subversion, the genius of the spirit in disguise, as it struggles against that omnivore, nature herself. In this way the spirit becomes the enemy of nature, but fits itself to her forms, and hides there, inside her, holding her together.
 
Godspeed You! Black Emperor have a lot of really powerful monologues in their songs tbh

It was Coney Island, they called Coney Island the playground of the world
There was no place like it, in the whole world, like Coney Island when I was a youngster
No place in the world like it, and it was so fabulous.
Now it's shrunk down to almost nothing...
you see
And, uh, I still remember in my mind how things used to be, and...
uh, you know, I feel very bad
But people from all over the world came here...
from all over the world...
it was the playground they called it the playground of the world...
over here
Anyways, you see, I...
uh...
you know...
I even got, when I was very small, I even got lost at Coney Island, but they found me...
on the...
on the beach
And we used to sleep on the beach here, sleep overnight.
they don't do that anymore.
Things changed...
you see
They don't sleep anymore on the beach
 
"The earth isn't dying, it's being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses"
 
"I'm gonna force the Serengeti, to disappear into my eyes.
And when I hear your voices calling, I'm gonna turn just inside out."

( @Factualist Thanks for Godspeed You! Black Emperor, my new favorite thing. And here's to old Bill. Or young Kim ;) )
 
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The Loner

Like one who has traveled distant oceans
am I among those who are forever at home.
The crowded days are spread across their tables,
but to me the far-off holds more life.

Behind my face stretches a world
no more lived in, perhaps, than the moon.
But the others leave no feeling alone
and all their words are inhabited.

The things I brought back with me
seem strange here and out of place.
In their own land they moved like animals,
but here they hold their breath in shame.

—Rilke, Book of Images
 
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