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Parenting Quote by John Barth

“In sum I'm not what either parent or I had in mind. One hoped I'd be astonishing, forceful, triumphant—heroical in other words. One dead. I myself conventional. I turn out I.” quote by John Barth — Download Open image

““In sum I'm not what either parent or I had in mind. One hoped I'd be astonishing, forceful, triumphant—heroical in other words. One dead. I myself conventional. I turn out I.””

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Parenting Psychology

More by John Barth

Tis e'er the wont of simple folk to prize the deed and o'erlook the motive, and of learned folk to discount the deed and…

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“So, I begin each day with a gesture of cynicism, and close it with a gesture of faith; or, if you prefer, begin it by reminding myself that, for me at least, goals and objectives are without value, and close it by demonstrating that the fact is irrelevant. A gesture of temporality, a gesture of eternity. It is in the…

I admire writers who can make complicated things simple, but my own talent has been to make simple things complicated.

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“That clever folk care less for what ye think than why ye think it.”

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Printed prose is historically a most peculiar, almost an aberrant way of telling stories, and by far the most inherently anesthetic: It is the only medium of art I can think of which appeals directly to none of our five senses. The oral and folk tradition in narrative made use of verse or live-voice dynamics, embellished by gesture and expression--a…

“There's a great difficulty in making choices if you have any imagination at all. Faced with such a multitude of desireable choices, no one…

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Self knowledge is always bad news.

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The first obligation of the writer is to be interesting. To be interesting; not to change the world.

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Yet everyone begins in the same place; how is it that most go along without difficulty but a few lose their way?

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A curious thing about written literature: It is about four thousand years old, but we have no way of knowing whether four thousand years…

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Nothing is loathsomer than the self-loathing of a self one loathes.

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He wishes he had never entered the funhouse. But he has. Then he wishes he were dead. But he's not. Therefore he will construct…

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Let children support their parents or be imprisoned.

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“As members of the Church, there are things you cannot do. For one, you cannot take a Las Vegas-style vacation. I do not know whether you all knew that. You cannot gamble, bet on the horses, or play with playing cards. You cannot be "loose," immoral, or violent. . . . Other such questions are solved by straight thinking. My…

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(knitting while on a motorcycle) "For several years she knitted in secret (my father would not approve; she was to concentrate on motorcycling and LEAN into the curves, etc), and used a small circular needle (socks and mittens) in order to keep the knitting in her pocket until they were under way; then she leaned back slightly so Gaffer couldn't…

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My parents were not musical, and they were not effervescent people; everything was very quiet. The music that I played was loud; it used…

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If my child had prejudice in his head, I'd be ashamed. I would see it as my failure as a parent.

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