Living in America ...

Out in the country there are so many things to avoid such as the three poisons, ivy, oak and sumacs. Then there are ticks, lyme's disease, snakes and God knows what else. One must avoid the television as well or soon you will find yourself repeating the inane babble you heard on ailse eight in the grocery store last night, Cereal Canyon, when some woman said, "I can't believe it, I just missed my FAVORITE reality show." But perhaps the greatest danger of navigating through this land of plenty is, well, the plenty itself. Every restaurant piles your plate high with as many calories as they can, ziggaurats of food, most of it fried.

From The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.

From Desolation Row, Bob Dylan

When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke?

From Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

From Andualsian Songs, Fedirico Garcia Lorca

La mar no tiene naranjas,
ni Sevilla tiene amor.