Home > Work > 300 Arguments: Essays
61 " Death will reveal what you otherwise would have finished. Also what you never would have finished. I found the notes for a book a woman had been working on for thirty years: sixteen pages. "
― Sarah Manguso , 300 Arguments: Essays
62 " There are two kinds of people: those who can't perform the act when they're sad and those who perform it only to escape sadness. "
63 " The dark owns everything, but our sun comes out often enough that we think the universe is half dark, half light. "
64 " When the worst comes to pass, the first feeling is relief. "
65 " I made so many mistakes on purpose just to get them out of the way. "
66 " Talking with someone who reveals nothing, I hear myself madly filling the emptiness with information about myself. "
67 " One cannot convince another to love anything or anyone. "
68 " I write in defense of the beliefs I fear are least defensible. "
69 " It's an expression of grief for an original loss. "
70 " We hide in plain sight, in our bodies. "
71 " Of course language isn't enough. "
72 " It's interesting to watch my friend speak carefully about what he thinks I'll find interesting. "
73 " We married other people, had children. I still can't believe it. I might never believe it. "
74 " Dying young can really help an art career along. It's the careerist's ultimate paradox. "
75 " I was angry at the ghost for months, would shout at it to stop trying to scare me. Now I understand it's just lonely. "
76 " There are no memories, just artifacts. And they're all lying. "
77 " After a friend dies young, the story of her life becomes the exposition to a tragedy. This is the central problem of biography. "
78 " Great talents encourage great incapacities, but maintaining an inability to cook an egg or drive a car won't make you into a genius. "
79 " It's easier to speak to a crowd, to stare into the spotlight, than it is to look into a human face. "
80 " The will can achieve some things, but one must exhaust one's will in order to learn which things they are. "