Quotes By Mason Cooley

Kafka: cries of helplessness in twenty powerful volumes.

Documents create a paper reality we call proof.

Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.

In bridge clubs and in councils of state, the passions are the same.

Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.

Preserving tradition has become a nice hobby, like stamp collecting.

To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget.

Money: power at its most liquid.

A great reader seldom recognizes his solitude.

Death is frightening, and so is Eternal Life.

Logic teaches rules for presentation, not thinking.

Even cats grow lonely and anxious.

What lies behind appearance is usually another appearance.

Poor but happy is not a phrase invented by a poor person.

Fulfillment is often more trouble than it is worth.

Conscious thought is the tidying up at the end.

Women encourage men to be childish, then scold them.

Outside books, we avoid colorful characters.

It is possible to interpret without observing, but not to observe without interpreting.

The passions are the same in every conflict, large or small.

People believe that photographs are true and therefore cannot be art.

The discontented believe that their regrets are about the past.

The passion for money is never fickle.

I have learned to keep to myself how exceptional I am.

Families in which nothing is ever discussed usually have a lot not to discuss.

Self-hatred and self-love are equally self-centered.

Romance is tempestuous. Love is calm.

The beloved is the ultimate fetish.

Amazing that the human race has taken enough time out from thinking about food or sex to create the arts and sciences.

If I play hard to get, soon the phone stops ringing altogether.