Mason Cooley

To understand a literary style, consider what it omits.

— Mason Cooley

People invent gods to explain their suffering.

— Mason Cooley

All the powers of imagination combine in hypochondria.

— Mason Cooley

When a modest man praises himself, people listen.

— Mason Cooley

Don't sacrifice yourself for me. I will not be grateful.

— Mason Cooley

I like the old wisdom--puns, riddles, spells, proverbs.

— Mason Cooley

Progress may feel more like loss than gain.

— Mason Cooley

With every physical pain, my moral fibre unravels a little.

— Mason Cooley

The realist lies for advantage. The fantasist lies to give his dreams a flavor of reality.

— Mason Cooley

Your love for me is founded in a sentiment. My love for you is founded in the body. A precarious interchange.

— Mason Cooley

Like other secret lovers, many speak mockingly about popular culture to conceal their passion for it.

— Mason Cooley

Children must be protected not because they are innocent but because they are powerless.

— Mason Cooley

Gossip is dying out because fewer and fewer people care to talk about anything besides themselves.

— Mason Cooley

My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.

— Mason Cooley

New York is full of abandoned churches. A Godless city, but full of superstitions on every subject--art, money, sex, food, health.

— Mason Cooley

Finding a thought for an aphorism is not hard. Putting a kink in its tail is the hard part.

— Mason Cooley

Self-deception is nature; hypocrisy is art.

— Mason Cooley

The egg is the symbol of perfection. Do you want an egg?

— Mason Cooley

I really like life, don't you? There's nothing else quite like it.

— Mason Cooley

When Medusa looks in the mirror, she sees the Lady of Sorrows.

— Mason Cooley

Existence is not a mystery unless you think it has a meaning.

— Mason Cooley

To make advice agreeable, try paradox or rhyme.

— Mason Cooley

God may be a human creation, but He goes His way, not ours.

— Mason Cooley

Listening to people keeps them entertained.

— Mason Cooley

The truth usually has a slightly ugly look.

— Mason Cooley

Dirty old men, ignoring society, continue to follow nature.

— Mason Cooley

As a youth, I sought out decadence; as an elder, I try to avoid decay.

— Mason Cooley

People believe that photographs are true and therefore cannot be art.

— Mason Cooley

The nudes of art are not so distant from pornography as prudish pedants pretend.

— Mason Cooley

The past is ignorant of the present. Be careful in taking its advice.

— Mason Cooley

The rich are happier than we are, and should be.

— Mason Cooley

The writer considers sayability before anything else.

— Mason Cooley

A great reader seldom recognizes his solitude.

— Mason Cooley

Journalism never admits that nothing much is happening.

— Mason Cooley

Indifference is an excellent substitute for patience.

— Mason Cooley

Conscious thought is the tidying up at the end.

— Mason Cooley

Writing about an idea frees me of it. Thinking about it is a circle of repetitions.

— Mason Cooley

The pleasantest part of work is having done it.

— Mason Cooley

The question you're not supposed to ask is the important one.

— Mason Cooley

Generosity knows how to count, but refrains.

— Mason Cooley