“We all travelled light, taking with us only what we considered to be the bare essentials of life. When we opened our luggage for Customs inspection, the contents of our bags were a fair indication of character and interests. Thus Margo’s luggage contained a multitude of diaphanous garments, three books on slimming, and a regiment of small bottles each containing some elixir guaranteed to cure acne. Leslie’s case held a couple of roll-top pullovers and a pair of trousers which were wrapped round two revolvers, an air-pistol, a book called Be Your Own Gunsmith, and a large bottle of oil that leaked. Larry was accompanied by two trunks of books and a brief-case containing his clothes. Mother’s luggage was sensibly divided between clothes and various volumes on cooking and gardening. I travelled with only those items that I thought necessary to relieve the tedium of a long journey: four books on natural history, a butterfly net, a dog, and a jam-jar full of caterpillars all in imminent danger of turning into chrysalids. Thus, by our standards fully equipped, we left the clammy shores of England.”
“I wish I felt as calm as I look”
“I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.”
“Life has a way of taking its toll on the person you thought you were.”
“Life is, if anything, the art of combination. Of discrimination. Of freely picking one s own personal pattern out of a hundred choices. Not letting it be picked for you—either by the Establishment, or by the Rebels. Conformity of Hip is no better than Conformity of Square.”
“It s sweet and everything, but it s like you re not even there sometimes. It s great that you can listen and be a shoulder to someone, but what about when someone doesn t need a shoulder? What if they need the arms or something like that? You can t just sit there and put everybody s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can t. You have to do things. Like what? I asked. My mouth was dry. I don t know. Like take their hands when the slow song comes up for a change. Or be the one who asks someone for a date. Or tell people what you need. Or what you want.”
“Yuvraj Singh is one of the best batsmen to watch in world cricket when he s in form. He is ego personified. Yuvraj doesn’t just hit the ball, he lets it rebound off his aura.”
“You cannot define a person on just one thing. You can t just forget all these wonderful and good things that a person has done because one thing didn t come off the way you thought it should come off.”
“Years later, on a Steve Jobs discussion board on the website Gawker, the following tale appeared from someone who had worked at the Whole Foods store in Palo Alto a few blocks from Jobs home: I was shagging carts one afternoon when I saw this silver Mercedes parked in a handicapped spot. Steve Jobs was inside screaming at his car phone. This was right before the first iMac was unveiled and I m pretty sure I could make out, Not. Fucking. Blue. Enough!!!”
“And is usually true of a man of one idea, [Charles] became obsessed.”
“You must make small steps into the air of being yourself. Find yourself in an empty landscape, build your character, and then spend the rest of your life demonstrating it.”
“A good personality often reflects with high levels of consistency.”
“It takes a lifetime of practice, persistence, and commitment to unearth just a few elements of our personality.”