The only authority I respect is the one that causes butterflies to fly south in fall and north in springtime. Tom Robbins More Quotes by Tom Robbins More Quotes From Tom Robbins In fiction, when you paint yourself into a corner, you can write a pair of suction cups onto the bottoms of your shoes and walk up the wall and out the skylight and see the sun breaking through the clouds. In nonfiction, you don't have that luxury. Tom Robbins wall clouds writing Sometimes, though, I feel that pushing books is a whole lot like pushing medicine. Think of books as pills. I have pills that cure ignorance and pills that cure boredom. I have pills to elevate moods and pills to open people's eyes to the awful truth: uppers and downers as they were. I sell pills to help people find themselves and pills to help them lose themselves when they require escape from the pressures and anxieties of life in a complex society. Tom Robbins eye ignorance book Don't be outraged, be outrageous. Tom Robbins outraged outrageous What mattered to Abu was the music of the sentence. 'A shadow does not belong to the object that casts it.' To Abu, it was a little poem. And in general, it was the poetics, the music of things that tossed his confetti. Tom Robbins shadow doe littles You know what the game of golf is, don't you? It's basketball for people who can't jump and chess for people who can't think. Tom Robbins basketball golf thinking A person's looking for a simple truth to live by, there it is. CHOICE. To refuse to passively accept what we've been handed by nature or society, but to choose for ourselves. CHOICE. That's the difference between emptiness and substance, between a life actually lived and a wimpy shadow cast on an office wall. Tom Robbins wall differences simple To live fully, one must be free, but to be free one must give up security. Therefore, to live one must be ready to die. How's that for a paradox? Tom Robbins paradox ready giving-up Violence stinks no matter which side of it you're on. But now and then there's nothing left to do but hit the other person over the head with a frying pan. Tom Robbins frying-pans violence matter In the beginning was the thing. And one thing led to another. Tom Robbins one-thing Should you fail to pilot your own ship, don't be surprised at what inappropriate port you find yourself docked. Tom Robbins finding-yourself ships pilots A sense of humor...is superior to any religion so far devised. Tom Robbins still-life-with-woodpecker perfume sense-of-humor Words on a page can hypnotize you if the rhythm is right Tom Robbins rhythm pages ifs Whether a man is a criminal or a public servant is purely a matter of perspective. Tom Robbins criminals perspective men The only bubble in the flat champagne of February is Valentine’s Day. It was no accident that our ancestors pinned Valentine’s Day on February’s shirt: he or she lucky enough to have a lover in frigid, antsy February has cause for celebration, indeed. Tom Robbins valentine causes lucky I have always been a romantic, one of those people who believes that a woman in pink circus tights contains all the secrets of the universe. Tom Robbins secret believe people Above all, have a good time. If you aren’t enjoying writing it, you can hardly expect someone else to enjoy reading it. Tom Robbins good-times reading writing To be or not to be isn't the question. The question is how to prolong being. Tom Robbins diets health exercise So you think that you're a failure, do you? Well, you probably are. What's wrong with that? In the first place, if you've any sense at all you must have learned by now that we pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success. Embrace failure! Seek it out. Learn to love it. That may be the only way any of us will ever be free. Tom Robbins failure love thinking Are you aware that rushing toward a goal is a sublimated death wish? It's no coincidence we call them 'deadlines.' Tom Robbins rushing goal wish Rules such as "Write what you know," and "Show, don't tell," while doubtlessly grounded in good sense, can be ignored with impunity by any novelist nimble enough to get away with it. There is, in fact, only one rule in writing fiction: Whatever works, works. Tom Robbins novelists writing fiction
