The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald

“Not everyone can speak about what they suffer. Some are separated from the only one they love, but are obliged to remain silent.” (p.g. 74)

August Schlegel wrote that “form is mechanical when, through external force, it is imparted merely as an accidental addition without reference to its quality: as, for example, when we give a particular shape to a soft mass so that it may retain the same when it hardens. Organic form is innate: it unfolds itself from within, and acquires its determination at the same time as the perfect development of the germ.” (p.g. 86)

“I think, indeed, that women have a better grasp on the whole business of life than we men have. We are morally better than they are, but they can reach perfection, we can’t. And that is in spirit of the fact that they particularise, we generalise.” (p.g. 100)

“Pure sensation can never be in contradiction to nature.” (p.g. 123)

“Courage when you don’t understand what it is that you have to face is no better than ignorance.” (p.g. 157)

“Courage is more than endurance, it is the power to create your own life in the face of all that man or God can inflict, so that every day and every night is what you imagine it. Courage makes us dreamers, courage makes us poets.” (p.g. 157)

My Remarkable Journey by Larry King

"The reason there’s nothing better than fatherhood is what it produces. In my case, it produced: Andy, Larry Jr., Chaia, Chance, and Cannon. They are my reason for being."

"Memories are all we have. Lose them, and we have nothing. But memories touched by humor, those are the best of all. " (p.g. 2)

"They say that discipline is a father’s way of showing love." (p.g. 17)

"If there were anybody here exactly like you there would be no reason for being here." (p.g. 39)

"One of my major slogans in life is: A nose that can hear is worth two that can smell." (p.g. 39)

"Miami was one of the few places where Lenny Bruce didn’t have a lot of trouble with the cops. I said, “ Lenny, why are you wearing this?”

He said , “ I like to wear prison uniforms.”

“Why?”

“ I like to walk up to cops and ask them directions.”

“Why?”

“To see their reactions. Because you know what they’re thinking. The first thing they’re thinking is, Is this an escaped con asking for directions? The second thing they’re thinking is, Nah, can’t be an escaped con. Why would an escaped con ask a policeman for directions? Third thing they’re thinking is, What if he’s a brilliant escaped con who thinks that I’m not thinking what he’s thinking?” (p.g. 65)

"When you develop an attachment to a team, your emotional well-being is dependent on the actions of others." (p.g. 90)

"If you take a risk and you love somebody, if you’re really committing yourself, you’re opening yourself to be hurt." (p.g. 96)

Imperfect Endings by Joe Fitzgerald Carter

"You are nobody till somebody loves you."
p.g. 74