Americans are accustomed to welcoming, or at least receiving, refugees from other countries, not creating our own. Andrei Codrescu More Quotes by Andrei Codrescu More Quotes From Andrei Codrescu There is a velvety sensuality here at the mouth of the Mississippi that you won't find anywhere else. Tell me what the air feels like at 3 AM on a Thursday night in late August in Shaker Heights, and I bet that you won't be able to say because nobody stays up that late. But in New Orleans, I'll tell you, it's like ink and honey passed through silver moonlight. Andrei Codrescu new-orleans air night The real technology -behind all our other technologies- is language. It actually creates the world our consciousness lives in. Andrei Codrescu learning technology real How did you fall in love with New Orleans? At once, madly. Looking back, sometimes I think it was predestined. Andrei Codrescu falling-in-love new-orleans thinking The worst part about zombies raging unchecked is the slow paralysis that they induce in people who aren't quite zombies yet. The rest of us un-zombies turn our heads, hoping the ghouls will just go away. Andrei Codrescu zombie ghouls people There is no ´Complete Idiots Guide to Creationism,´ but perhaps one is not needed. Andrei Codrescu idiot guides needed These are the poems of a traveler and a lover who feels both the terror of time passing and the consolation of eternity. From such tension spring lovely poetic objects, ready for intelligent use. Andrei Codrescu lovely intelligent spring The peasants of all lands recognize power and they salute it, whether it's good or evil. Andrei Codrescu peasants land evil Cookbooks bear the same relation to real books that microwave food bears to your grandmother?s. Andrei Codrescu sarcastic real book The time has come for writers to become inaccessible again. The reason is not some kind of 'mystique' that makes people curious (though it helps), but the fact that no real writers ever lay down anything real in public-they work in solitude, they think hard, and their thoughts are rarely nice or 'friendly.' Andrei Codrescu nice real thinking In the grand collage that is Dada, past and future are equally usable. Andrei Codrescu collages past Nostalgia is masochism and masochism is something masochists love to share. Andrei Codrescu masochism nostalgia share It's still a mystery to me exactly how I learned the language. [But] I was 19 years old and I had very urgent things to tell girls. Andrei Codrescu girl language years It is the job of the market to turn the base material of our emotions into gold. Andrei Codrescu emotion gold jobs Only the poor can create art. Andrei Codrescu poor art The evaporation of 4 million who believe in this crap would leave the world a better place. Andrei Codrescu atheism believe world Most artists don't get paid for what they do, and they are lucky if they can persuade a friend to let them show something at a kid's birthday party. Andrei Codrescu friend party lucky birthday New Orleans reminds me of Romania because New Orleans is very corrupt politically. Andrei Codrescu corrupt new because me Even the greatest poets can't express tragedy in a way that is larger than their immediate circumstances. Andrei Codrescu greatest tragedy circumstances way My mother and I were part of a deal in the mid-'60s between Romania and Israel. Israel bought freedom for Romanian Jews for $2,000 a head. Ceausescu made a bundle in hard currency. He also 'sold' ethnic Germans to West Germany. Instead of going to Israel, my mother and I came to the United States. Andrei Codrescu head hard freedom mother After so many years, I feel more American than anything else, but I'm also Romanian and whatever other oddities of temperament I picked up elsewhere, in Transylvania or France, for instance. These days, everybody is both an exile and a resident - they don't call it the global village for nothing. Andrei Codrescu whatever nothing feel village
