“You know, girls, I was wondering how the end of the world will be.”
“Now you trigger me about the power of thinking.”
“Smar: There is a common secret. Angie: A common secret? Smar: Yes, Angie, you may have psychic abilities, because the world is indeed ending.”
“Norma: I agree with Smar. I have noticed a rise in temperature. Angie: Now that you mention it, lately I have more sweat than ever. I used hydrocortizone two times. Then I used liquid powder to prevent the burn.”
“Norma: It s a pandemic, Angie. It s serious. Angie: If it s not? Norma: What are you implying? Angie: We re not ancient humans, Norma. Humanity has evolved so much that nowadays nothing is impossible. Not even avoiding lethal infection from a virus.”
“-...Why do you uglify yourself? You are beautiful too.” -I could be more beautiful, but I fell victim to natural selection.”
“Humor and mockery can reveal tyrants, ideologues, and fools, that is why some people hate them so much.”
“The truth is what is. If what is is, you have to sleep eight, ten hours a day, that is the truth. A lie will be: People need no sleep at all. Truth is what is. If every politician from the beginning is crooked, there is no crooked. But if you are concerned with a lie, what should be -and what should be is a fantasy, a terrible, terrible lie that someone gave the people long ago: This is what should be-and no one ever saw what should be, that you don t need any sleep and you can go seven years without sleep, so that all the people were made to measure up to that dirty lie. You know there s no crooked politicians. There s never a lie because there is never a truth.”
“Now, if anyone in this room or the world finds those two words decadent, obscene, immoral, amoral, asexual, the words to come really make you feel uncomfortable, if you think I m rank for saying it to you, you the beholder think it s rank for listening to it, you probably can t come. And then you re of no use, because that s the purpose of life, to re-create it.”
“Marijuana will be legal some day, because the many law students who now smoke pot will some day become Congressmen and legalize it in order to protect themselves. You wouldn t believe how many people smoke pot. If anyone reading this would like to become mayor, believe me, there is a vast, untapped vote. Of course, you wouldn t want to be the Marijuana Mayor, so you d have to make it a trick statute, like: The Crippled Catholic Jewish War Children in Memory of Ward Bond Who Died for Your Bill to Make Marijuana Legal.”
“I don t smoke pot, and I m glad because then I can champion it without special pleading. The reason I don t smoke it is because it facilitates ideas and heightens sensations-and I ve got enough shit flying through my head without smoking pot.”
“I guess what happens is, if you get arrested in Town A (Philadelphia) and then Town B (San Francisco)-with a lot of publicity-then when you get to Town C they have to arrest you or what kind of shithouse town are they running? It s a pattern of unintentional harassment.”
“Often with comedy we look for the joke in our pain not the solution”
“The wall was an eyesore in its newness, grayness, lack of grace. That much blank space might not set a regular person s blood racing, but to an artist, it s like opening up a new sketchpad, the kind with heavy textured paper. Impossible to leave it empty.”
“Nonie chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. She d told Fezzo so much already yet there wasn t a speck of incredulity in his eyes. His expression was serious, and she had his full attention. I m not quite sure about what to do with Helen, the ghost that followed me home.”
“From age sixteen to age twenty, a woman s body is a temple. From twenty-one to forty-five, it s an amusement park. From forty-five on, it s a terrarium.”
“Kaz reached into his coat pocket. Here, he said and handed Jesper a slender book with an elaborate cover. Are we going to read to each other? Just flip it open to the back. Jesper opened the book and peered at the last page, puzzled. So? Hold it up so we don t have to look at your ugly face. My face has character. Besides - oh! An excellent read, isn t it? Who knew I had a taste for literature?”