Quotes
Authors
Lydia Davis

"You know the pain is part of the whole thing. And it isnâ€™t that you can say afterwards the pleasure was greater than the pain and thatâ€™s why you would do it again. That has nothing to do with it. You canâ€™t measure it, because the pain comes after and it lasts longer. So the question really is, Why doesnâ€™t that pain make you say, I wonâ€™t do it again? When the pain is so bad that you have to say that, but you donâ€™t."

Source : Lydia Davis (2008). “Break It Down: Stories”, p.30, Macmillan

Lydia Davis

#Pain Quotes #Lasts Quotes #Pleasure Quotes

“Honey, I am going to my grave with my eyelashes and my makeup on.”
“I believe you have to make things happen.”
“I have repeatedly said, when asked, that if the stories about me helped inspired our troops and rally a nation, then perhaps there was some good.”

Source : Opening Statement Before House Oversight & Govt. Reform Committee, delivered 24 April 2007
“I've made my own music, and the way I've always described it is Peggy Lee with an electric guitar, or Billie Holiday with some PJ Harvey in there.”
“If when you say 'whiskey' you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason... then I am certainly against it. But, if when you say 'whiskey' you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine... the drink that enables a man to magnify his joy... then I am certainly for it. This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.”
“We are looking to the FTC to see whether companies that break their promises and collect personal information in an unfair and deceptive manner will be held accountable.”
“Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing.”
“I write for a certain sphere of readers in the United States who on average watch seven and a half hours of multichannel television per day.”

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