"What makes us threaten the things we want most?"

--

Source : Jim Shepard (2008). “Like You'd Understand, Anyway: Stories”, p.98, Vintage

Jim Shepard

“My father wasn't a very good lawyer. He thought the law was sacred and something that was meant to help people. He didn't charge people like he should have... which is why I was allowed to play bars and strip joints when I was 14.”
“She goes from one addiction to another. All are ways for her to not feel her feelings.”
“The life, which others pay, let us bestow, And give to fame what we to nature owe.”
“Simplicity, carried to an an extreme, becomes elegance.”

Source : Jon Franklin (1987). “Writing for story: craft secrets of dramatic nonfiction by a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner”, Signet
“Masculinity & femininity are just styles. They are interpretations”
“That's one of my biggest obstacles. I'm afraid of failure. I want to succeed so bad that I become afraid of failing.”
“The Federal Government is rendered weak to do wrong, and powerful to do right: for, as soon as it begins to go wrong, it naturally begins to be divided against itself, and the three great wheels of its machinery exhaust their momentum, or wear each other out, in their friction against each other; while, as soon as it begins to go right, all the parts work harmoniously, and exhaust their full strength on the object of their action.”
“When we played softball, I'd steal second base, feel guilty and go back.”

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