My advice to all those who are going to find themselves is: stay exactly where you are. Otherwise you are in great danger of losing yourself for ever.
“
—
From The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
And I was tormented by the thought that I might not have time to accomplish my task. What task? I had no idea. Frankly, was what I was doing worth continuing?
I said to myself: Perhaps there is nothing in the world I cling to as much as this feeling of adventure; but it comes when it pleases; it is gone so quickly and how empty I am once it has left me. Does it, ironically, pay me these short visits in order to show me that I have wasted my life?
“
—
From Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by LLoyd Alexander (via demise-of-sanity)
From Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) by Woody Allen
“Do you realize what a thread were all hanging by? Can you understand how meaningless everything is? Everything. I gotta get some answers.”
Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.
I am alone in the midst of these happy, reasonable voices. All these creatures spend their time explaining, realizing happily that they agree with each other. In Heaven’s name, why is it so important to think the same things all together.
“
—
From Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre (via itsfromabook)
I feel you in my bones. Your silence screams in my ears. You may nail your mouth shut, you may cut out your tongue, can you keep yourself from existing? Will you stop your thoughts.
From Songs from the Second Floor (2000) by Roy Andersson
Dr. Breakfast by Stephen P. Neary
I am the most tired woman in the world. I am tired when I get up. Life requires an effort I cannot make. Please give me that heavy book. I need to put something heavy like that on top of my head. I have to place my feet under the pillows always, so as to be able to stay on earth. Otherwise I feel myself going away, going away at a tremendous speed, on account of my lightness. I know that I am dead. As soon as I utter a phrase my sincerity dies, becomes a lie whose coldness chills me. Don’t say anything, because I see that you understand me, and I am afraid of your understanding. I have such a fear of finding another like myself, and such a desire to find one! I am so utterly lonely, but I also have such a fear that my isolation be broken through, and I no longer be the head and ruler of my universe. I am in great terror of your understanding by which you penetrate into my world; and then I stand revealed and I have to share my kingdom with you.
