Mason Cooley

“Excuses change nothing, but make everyone feel better.”

“Rage is exciting, but leaves me confused and exhausted.”

“Unlike the actual, the fictional explains itself.”

“Art seduces, but does not exploit.”

“Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.”

“Fastidious taste makes enjoyment a struggle.”

“In psychoanalysis, only the fee is exactly what it seems to be.”

“The beloved is the ultimate fetish.”

“The passion for money is never fickle.”

“Flattery and insults raise the same question: What do you want?”

“Travelers never think that they are the foreigners.”

“I read less and less. I have not forgiven books for their failure to tell me the truth and make me happy.”

“Few friendships could survive the moodiness of love affairs.”

“Fulfillment is often more trouble than it is worth.”

“Human society sustains itself by transforming nature into garbage.”

“In the street, the gaze of desire is furtive or menacing.”

“'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'”

“The man of sensibility is too busy talking about his feelings to have time for good deeds.”

“Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.”

“Thinking about the universe has now been handed over to specialists. The rest of us merely read about it.”