Home > Work > Still Life with Woodpecker
61 " It might be noted here that Freudian analysts of fairy tales have suggested that kissing toads and frogs is symbolized fellatio. In that regard, Princess Leigh-Cheri was, on a conscious level, innocent, although not so naïve as Queen Tilli, who though fellatio was an obscure Italian opera and was annoyed that she couldn’t find the score. "
― Tom Robbins , Still Life with Woodpecker
62 " [R]ed hair is slow to lay back once it's got its dandruff up, and her bitchy mood required further opportunity to express itself. "
63 " He worked too hard, smiled too little and dined as one indifferent to both flavor and fate; he clearly was a hero in need of rescue by a princess. "
64 " What I'm saying is simply that every totalitarian society, no matter how strict, has had its underground. In fact, two undergrounds. There's the underground involved in political resistance and the underground involved in preserving beauty and fun--which is to say, preserving the human spirit. "
65 " I asked Mr. Wrangle what you were like. He said you were hornet juice and rosebuds in a container of gazelle meat. "
66 " I have learned something that many women these days never learn: Prince Charming really is a toad. And the beautiful Princess has halitosis. The bottom line is that a) people are never perfect, but love can be, b) that is the one and only way that they mediocre and the vile can be transformed, and c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love. Wouldn't that be the way to make love stay? "
67 " The most important thing is love,” said Leigh-Cheri. “I know that now. There’s no point in saving the world if it means losing the moon. "
68 " Tunnel vision is caused by an optic fungus that multiplies when the brain is less energetic than the ego. It is complicated by exposure to politics. "
69 " Smoking cigarettes is as intimate as we can become with fire without immediate excruciation. "
70 " People who sacrifice beauty for efficiency get what they deserve. "
71 " Tilli stroked her Chihuahua. Max’s heart made a sound like the sleigh bells on Mrs. Santa Claus’s dildo. "
72 " Like women in general, like Aries women in particular, like redheaded Aries women in greater particular, she loathed to be misunderstood. Injustice against others outraged her, injustice against herself set her to boiling like brimstone soup. "
73 " Morality depends on culture. Culture depends on climate. "
74 " You don’t need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Don’t even listen, simply wait. Don’t even wait. Be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you. To be unmasked, it has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet. —Franz Kafka "
75 " As they say in my country, have a nice day. "
76 " There is only one serious question. And that is: Who knows how to make love stay? Answer me that and I will tell you whether or not to kill yourself. Answer me that and I will ease your mind about the beginning and the end of time. Answer me that and I will reveal to you the purpose of the moon. "
77 " (Actually, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better. "
78 " although surely she realized that space is merely a device to prevent everything from being in the same spot. "
79 " Alas, Gulietta, this was an American frog of the last quarter of the twentieth century, a time when wishing apparently no longer led to anything, and Leigh-Cheri eventually named it Prince Charming after that son-of-a-bitch who never comes though. "
80 " like two r's trapped in a spanish songbook, tilli and max lurked in their shoebox castle, waiting to be rolled. "