“Here, right now, this is gorgeous. Please let’s keep it so. As soon as I think/say this, I’ve ruined paradise.”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: The Moment Passes, Paradise Lost, Lost When Found
“Most novelists have only one story to tell and that, in book after book, they ring endless changes on a single essential narrative.”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: One Message, I'll Try Again And Again, Finding The Right Words, Same Story, Only One Story
“There is no wisdom, only many wisdoms— beautiful and delusional.”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: Polytheism, Logic Against Logic, Scientific Perspectivism
“Write yourself naked, from exile, and in blood.”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: Writing, Writing Strategies, Writing with Blood
“The purpose of art is to transfer feeling from one person’s heart to another person’s heart.”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: Purpose of Art, Art, My Heart To Your Heart, IWroteThis4You, 107 Of The Greatest Single Sentences In Literature
“In life, in love, otherness is sexy but unbridgeable.”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: The Unbridgeable, Love, Sex, Longing
“Movies love to imply that the man and woman held each other all night long, but you can’t do it. You have to roll away.”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: real love, Love
“The Greek word eros denotes 'want,' 'lack,' 'desire for that which is missing.' The lover wants what he doesn’t have.”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: Word Orgins, Eros, Love
“We are all so afraid. We are all so alone. We all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: Alone, Love, Sad
“In college, reading all those Greek tragedies and listening to the lectures about them, I would think, rather blithely, 'Well, that tragic flaw thing is nicely symmetrical: whatever makes Oedipus heroic is also—' What did I know then? Nothing. I didn’t feel in my bones as I do now that what powers o…”— David Shields, amazon.comTagged: Identity, Oedipus