Mason Cooley

The more learned a writer, the more digression beckons him.

— Mason Cooley

Every work of art changes its predecessors.

— Mason Cooley

My strengths make me contemptuous. My weaknesses make me charitable.

— Mason Cooley

Consensus is usually made possible by vague language and shallow commitments.

— Mason Cooley

Until I am ready to lose weight, I cannot see how fat I am.

— Mason Cooley

There is a line between a definite maybe and an indefinite yes.

— Mason Cooley

Thought maps existence; fantasy colors it.

— Mason Cooley

Pursuit of the approximate can conclude. Not so pursuit of the absolute.

— Mason Cooley

The harp is an insipid instrument--no good for dancing, feasting, or marching, only for sitting primly in a parlor or on a…

— Mason Cooley

At the dinner table, if you can't think of anything to say, sit quietly. Don't throw rolls, or chew on your napkin.

— Mason Cooley

F. Scott Fitzgerald thought that prolonging his adolescence would protect his talent.

— Mason Cooley

Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one's behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.

— Mason Cooley

A dense undergrowth of extension cords sustains my upper world of lights, music, and machines of comfort.

— Mason Cooley

Unconditional love is a lofty ideal, but unconditional hate is a fact well documented by history.

— Mason Cooley

In philosophy, the principles are more interesting than the examples. In literature, the examples are more interesting than the principles.

— Mason Cooley

The nature of language may determine what most people say, but I always speak my own meaning.

— Mason Cooley

Death is frightening, and so is Eternal Life.

— Mason Cooley

Lies save trouble now, but may return in thunder and lightning.

— Mason Cooley

Pornography and cooking shows have created two new spectator sports.

— Mason Cooley

My mother wanted to shrink from my clinging, but did not.

— Mason Cooley

We often mistake the original part of ourselves for a weakness.

— Mason Cooley

Our detachments move us toward freedom and death.

— Mason Cooley

Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder.

— Mason Cooley

To postpone unpleasantness is human; to forget it is divine.

— Mason Cooley

To succeed, find the right rut and stay with it.

— Mason Cooley

I dream of vague shapes that hint of my heart's desire.

— Mason Cooley

Dancing and running shake up the chemistry of happiness.

— Mason Cooley

Reputation runs behind the current state of affairs.

— Mason Cooley

Funerals prove that someone is really gone.

— Mason Cooley

The best propaganda omits rather than invents

— Mason Cooley

If everything had a label, we would live in a fully delineated but false world.

— Mason Cooley

Awakening in the morning returns us to life, and to awareness of death.

— Mason Cooley

The tranquility of my room partakes too much of Forest Lawn.

— Mason Cooley

I can imagine many things, but few clearly.

— Mason Cooley

I deplore my shortcomings, but plan to keep them.

— Mason Cooley

The Ordinary Life: the misery seems planned, the happiness accidental.

— Mason Cooley

The ravaged face in the mirror hides the enchanting youth that is the real me.

— Mason Cooley

Self-inflicted misery smirks under its crown of thorns.

— Mason Cooley

Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera.

— Mason Cooley

Unlike the actual, the fictional explains itself.

— Mason Cooley