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Apathy and Other Small Victories QUOTES

Apathy and Other Small Victories QUOTES

1 " It was nice of her to want to believe the best about me. People tend to do that with the strangers they're fucking. If she wanted to think that apathy and independence were the same thing, good for her. Maybe she was right. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

2 " Sitting on my stool I thought of a bumper sticker: "If Mean People Suck, Why Isn't My Dick In Your Mouth? "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

3 " Sometimes the questions are more important than the answers, especially when you do not know what the answers are. I didn't give a shit either way. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

4 " The world is your oyster...
...too bad you're allergic to shellfish. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

5 " at first I thought you were just using me" she said
"I definitely am." I just wasn't sure for what.
"Asshole!" she said, and punched me in the side. And she laughed as my kidney began to hemorrhage.

That's the beauty of honesty. Everyones so unused to hearing it they just assume you're kidding, and you get to feel very good and forthcoming without suffering any consequences except for traces of blood in your urine for the next day or two. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

6 " And when they start talking, and they always do, you find that each of them has a story they want to tell. Everyone, no matter how old or young, has some lesson they want to teach. And I sit there and listen and learn all about life from people who have no idea how to live it. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

7 " If stealing a few saltshakers was wrong I didn't want to be right. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

8 " In the long term everyone traffics in foregone conclusions, and in the short term they just get drunk. This is the way it has always been. Some half-assed ambiguity masquerading as mystery is all anybody's really looking for. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

9 " It’s like someone who prays every night saying God’s a good listener. Just because you’re talking to us doesn’t mean we’re listening. With me and God, you never really know. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

10 " But really it’s condescending and patronizing not to make fun of someone because they’re old or stupid or crippled or morbidly obese. Banged up people don’t want your pity. They just want to be treated like everyone else. Mockery, when done without prejudice or discretion, can be a form of respect. It’s the closest we’ll ever come to true equality. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

11 " It takes more than one kick in the pants to reverse a lifetime of unplanned apathy. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

12 " I was stealing salt shakers again. Ten, sometimes twelve a night, shoving them up my sleeves, smuggling them out of bars and diners and anywhere else I could find them. In the morning, wherever I woke up, I was always covered in salt. I was cured meat. I had become beef jerky. Even as a small child, I knew it would one day come to this. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

13 " Whenever I'm leaving I get sentimental for that nostalgia I know I won't have the next day. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

14 " The fan was spinning and as the shadows passed over the white ceiling I let my eyes unfocus until all of it looked like a universe being born or a planet unraveling, some creation or catastrophe depending on which way gravity was going and where you were standing. So instead of Elizabeth Taylor I thought about stars and how little I knew about them, and how if I was an explorer and I had to sail a boat across the ocean without rador or an electronic compass I’d be screwed because the only constellations I knew were the Big Dipper and Little Dipper and I always got them confused. And even though I knew I’d never have to sail that boat I still wished I knew more about stars and other things. And I wished I could remember lying in the back yard as a kid with my hands locked behind my head, looking up at the night sky and dreaming. But I couldn’t, because it wasn’t something I ever did. It would have been a nice memory though "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

15 " And everyone drank too much coffee too, at the wrong times and for the wrong reasons. They drank it when they came in every morning to get going, and then again in the afternoon to keep going. They ran on caffeine fumes all day and never fucking got anywhere. Then they went home spent and empty and crashed in front of the TV every night and slept away the few hours they had for themselves. All these motherfuckers are always talking about the best ways to manage your time. The fact is any time spent at work not sleeping in the bathroom is wasted time, and it’s hard to sleep when you’re pumped full of caffeine. Everyone’s awake for the wrong part of their lives. And by the weekend they’re too exhausted from all the frantic, useless activity to even care, and it’s only fucking two days off anyway. Nobody has the time or the energy to do what they really want, or to even figure out what that is. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

16 " Mockery when done without prejudice or discretion, can be a form of respect. It's the closest we'll ever come to true equality. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

17 " I was just being honest and descriptive.” “No, you were being an asshole.” “It’s not my fault they have to always be the same thing. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

18 " He had strawberry blond hair. That’s enough right there. That’s all you need to know. If you’re a man with strawberry blond hair and you’re not in the circus or a Viking, odds are you have not found your place in life and never will. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

19 " Lying to other people is fine and usually funny, but lying to yourself is tacky. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories

20 " Two wrongs don't make a right but sometimes they make me laugh. I am a vengeful god. "

― Paul Neilan , Apathy and Other Small Victories