Some people, every now and then, simply had to have One Too Many, go drifty voiced and slouch mouthed, swimming willfully around in their own sadness as if it were hot springs. Marisha Pessl More Quotes by Marisha Pessl More Quotes From Marisha Pessl Certainly one of the surprising truths of having a book published is realizing that your book is as open to interpretation as an abstract painting. People bring their own beliefs and attitudes to your work, which is thrilling and surprising at the same time. Marisha Pessl attitude book people In college I studied '60s and '70s radicalism, student activism, forms of political violence, groups like the Weathermen, the Black Panthers, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the New Left. Marisha Pessl army political college I haven't always been a writer and I suppose I tiptoed around the idea of writing full time, because it's so isolating. Marisha Pessl havens writing ideas Like that lightning that comes out of the blue when there's not even a storm going on, just a crazy crack in the sky. With something like that right in front of you, you can't help but feel there's new possibilities out there. Marisha Pessl crazy sky blue Dad's Theory of Arrogance--that everyone always assumes they're the Principal Character of Desire and/or Loathing in everybody else's Broadway Play. Marisha Pessl dad play character Just when you think you've hit rock bottom, you realize you're standing on another trapdoor. Marisha Pessl rocks realizing thinking Some people are as fragile as butterflies and sensitive and it’s your responsibility not to destroy them. Just because you can Marisha Pessl butterfly responsibility people Mortal fear is as crucial a thing to our lives as love. It cuts to the core of our being and shows us what we are. Will you step back and cover your eyes? Or will you have the strength to walk to the precipice and look out? Marisha Pessl cutting eye looks Making love to Aurelia was like rummaging through a card catalog in a deserted library, searching for one very obscure, little-read entry on Hungarian poetry. Marisha Pessl library making-love littles Juliet and Romeo be damned, you can't be in love until you've flossed your teeth next to the person at least three hundred times. Marisha Pessl teeth next three When you grow up--and from the look of things, you have awhile--but you learn things never go back to normal simply because everyone's sorry. Sorry is ridiculous. Marisha Pessl growing-up sorry looks It's a common feeling for people to feel intermittent antipathy toward individuals they're familiar with. Marisha Pessl common feelings people Always live your life with your biography in mind," Dad was fond of saying. "Naturally, it won't be published unless you have a Magnificent Reason, but at the very least you will be living grandly. Marisha Pessl live-your-life dad mind The late great Horace Lloyd Swithin (1844-1917), British essayist, lecturer, satirist, and social observer, wrote in his autobiographical Appointments, 1890-1901 (1902), "When one travels abroad, one doesn't so much discover the hidden Wonders of the World, but the hidden wonders of the individuals with whom one is traveling. They may turn out to afford a stirring view, a rather dull landscape, or a terrain so treacherous one finds it's best to forget the entire affair and return home. Marisha Pessl views home world Dad always warned that it was misleading when one imagined people, when one sas them in the Mind's Eye, because one never remembered them as they really were, with as many inconsistencies as there were hairs on a human head (100,000 to 200,000). Instead, the mind used a lazy shorthand, smoothed the person over into their most dominating characteristic--their pessimism or insecurity (something really being lazy, turning them into either Nice or Mean)--and one made the mistake of judging them from this basis alone and risked, on a subsequent encounter, being dangerously surprised. Marisha Pessl dad nice mistake I was aware now, as ever, that between all people there were First Times You See Them and Last Times you See Them. Marisha Pessl lasts people firsts As much as some people would like to believe, for their own peace of mind, that the appearance of evil in this world had a clean cause, the truth was never that simple. Marisha Pessl simple evil believe What you tend to find in the personal lives of brilliant men is devastation akin to a nuclear bomb going off. Marisha Pessl nuclear bombs men Sometimes it takes more courage not to let yourself see. Sometimes knowledge is damaging - not enlightenment but enleadenment. Marisha Pessl enlightenment sometimes It was as if Hannah had sprung a leak and her character, usually so meticulous and contained, was spilling all over the place. Marisha Pessl meticulous leaks character