If you want to see the consequences of ideas, write a story. If you want to see the consequences of belief, write a story in which somebody is acting on the ideas or beliefs that she has. Charles Baxter More Quotes by Charles Baxter More Quotes From Charles Baxter You are a real find and you keep me satisfied, up to a point. After all, I'm a malcontent and you can't change that. Charles Baxter malcontent satisfied real There's nothing to talk about to strangers anymore, if you know what I mean. Everything I want to say, I say to her. Charles Baxter stranger want mean What's agitating about solitude is the inner voice telling you that you should be mated to somebody, that solitude is a mistake. The inner voice doesn't care about who you find. It just keeps pestering you, tormenting you--if you happen to be me--with homecoming queens first, then girls next door, and finally anybody who might be pleased to see you now and then at the dinner table and in bed on occasion. You look up from reading the newspaper and realize that no one loves you, and no one burns for you. Charles Baxter queens girl mistake When blame has been assigned, the story is over. Charles Baxter blame has-beens stories My God, the corruptions of literature. It put all these notions into our heads. Charles Baxter notion corruption literature Literature is not an instruction manual. Charles Baxter manuals instruction literature What a midwesterner he was, a thoroughly unhip guy with his heart in the usual place, on the sleeve, in plain sight. Charles Baxter guy sight heart There is such a thing as the poetry of a mistake, and when you say, "Mistakes were made," you deprive an action of its poetry, and you sound like a weasel. Charles Baxter sound mistake character The problem with love and God, the two of them, is how to say anything about them that doesn’t annihilate them instantly with the wrong words, with untruth. . . . In this sense, love and God are equivalents. We feel both, but because we cannot speak clearly about them, we end up–wordless, inarticulate—by denying their existence altogether, and, pfffffft, they die. Charles Baxter problem say-anything two Because it is the Midwest, no one really glitters because no one has to, it's more of a dull shine, like frequently used silverware. Charles Baxter midwest glitter shining You think that what I've told you is an anecdote. But really it isn't. It's my whole life. It's the only story I have. Charles Baxter anecdotes stories thinking What's agitating about solitude is the inner voice telling you that you should be mated to somebody, that solitude is a mistake. The inner voice doesn't care about who you find. It just keeps pestering you, tormenting you. Charles Baxter voice solitude mistake [T]he astonishing purity of pain, how it will not be mixed with any other sensation. Charles Baxter astonishing pain purity When I'm writing, I'm waiting to see somebody, and I'm waiting to hear them. It's almost like conjuring spirits out of the air, using your own imaginative instability. Charles Baxter air waiting writing Gainfully unemployed, very proud of it, too. Charles Baxter work teacher retirement I don't think that most women have to prove that they're real women. You live long enough, you graduate to being real. Charles Baxter real long thinking Savor the imminent weirdness of the day. Charles Baxter weirdness As the poet says, all happy couples are alike, it's the unhappy ones who create the stories. I'm no longer a story. Happiness has made me fade into real life. Charles Baxter couple real unhappy The point is that although love may die, what is said on its behalf cannot be consumed by the passage of time, and forgiveness is everything. Charles Baxter passage-of-time said may Before, I was always trying to make my relationships work by means of willpower and forced affability. This time I didn't have to strive for anything. A quality of ease spread over us. Charles Baxter always-trying quality mean
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