16 quotes
If you talk to people, you can have whatever you want.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
Something has changed, and now, when I look at my students, I see only people who are going to eat up my time.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
The inevitable finally happened, just as I knew it would.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
Dad on friendship: "Sure, some people are nice. Real nice. Nice like carpets so you can walk all over them."
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
In first class, you count on your fellow passengers to make you feel good about yourself. You're supposed to look around with pride, telling yourself that these are your kind of people.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
Later I went to the design school and saw Kumar and Melamid, the Soviet dissident artists, who are funny. I sold them my soul for $1.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
It's fun to see where people live.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
Dad doesn't pay attention when you talk to him, so Paul's taken to throwing the term IRS into his sentences. Then it's suddenly: "Hold on a second, what did you say?"
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
Delinquent style is timeless. Real trouble doesn't walk around with a ponytail. It doesn't have a Mohawk or special shoelace patterns. Real trouble has a bad complexion and a Windbreaker.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
Someone in the back of the room started singing "God Bless America." The thing about "God Bless America" is that, after a certain point, nobody really knows the words. There's always a weird mumbling that follows "Stand beside her and guide her," and lasts until "From the mountains to the prairies."
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
Adrienne started teaching a few months ago in Denver and wrote that it leaves you with a constant feeling of deceiving people. That you know nothing they don't, or couldn't learn on their own if they cared to.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
On several occasions during my visit, she referred to herself as poor, and that depressed me. Most people would say they're broke. That word suggests a temporary setback. Poor, on the other hand, conveys a permanence.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
Harry Rowohlt, the fellow who translated my book into German and is reading with me on my tour, told me that when someone on the bus or at a nearby table in a restaurant talks on a cell phone, he likes to lean over and shout, "Come back to bed, I'm freezing."
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
In 1976 Dawn Erickson taught me that, in order to ensure good luck, you're supposed to say, "Rabbit, rabbit," on the first day of every month. It has to be the very first thing that comes out of your mouth and you have to say it out loud or else it doesn't work. I'd never been particularly superstitious, but ever since she told me, I've made it a point to follow her example.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
I'm finding it progressively more difficult to have my picture taken, especially now, when there always has to be a gimmick. The idea is that you have to be humiliated in order for your personality to shine through. You need to hang from the ceiling by a hook or crawl on your hands and knees through a puddle of something.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)
Someone stopped Mitch on the street last night and said, "I need another seventy-five cents so I can buy a cheeseburger. How about helping me?"
Mitch said, "Get it without the cheese," and continued walking.
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)