Steve Jobs:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Bruxy Cavey:

When sinful, broken, hurting people are pleasantly surprised at how accepting we are, and religious people are outraged at how accepting we are, there's a good chance we're starting to live like Jesus.

The End of Religion

Hugh MacLeod:

All great marketing breakthroughs are evolutions of language.

Evil Plans, p. 99

Sarah Schulman:

Human beings have the profound duty to intervene when someone else is being victimized, especially if that person asks them to.

Ties That Bind, p. 170

Martin Luther King Jr.:

The church at times has preserved that which is immoral and unethical.  Called to combat social evils, it has remained silent behind stained-glass windows....  How often the church has been an echo rather than a voice, a taillight behind the Supreme Court rather than a headlight guiding men progressively and decisively to higher levels of understanding.

Yashar Ali:

Those who engage in gaslighting create a reaction -- whether it's anger, frustration, sadness -- in the person they are dealing with. Then, when that person reacts, the gaslighter makes them feel uncomfortable and insecure by behaving as if their feelings aren't rational or normal.

"A Message to Women From a Man: You Are Not 'Crazy'"

Frank Schaeffer:

Believing in invisible things breeds an inferiority complex among people competing with science for hearts and minds.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 33

Barbra Streisand:

A man is commanding, a woman is demanding.  A man is forceful, a woman is pushy.  A man is a perfectionist, a woman is a pain in the ass.

Hugh MacLeod:

How do you get your stuff on the radar screen of "The Twenty"?  By creating brilliant stuff.  By creating brilliant stuff that "speaks" to the market in a way it has never been spoken to before.  If your stuff is different enough that it changes "the conversation" of your market for the better, other folk will notice, even the Big Boys.  "Improve the conversation by improving the language." 

Evil Plans, p. 99

Tonetta Landis:

Accept the reality that all oppression is connected and all forms of injustice reinforce one another.

From "Battle Hymn: A Queer Christian's Guide to More Than Survival"

Sarah Schulman:

Does anyone ever refuse to consider a manuscript because they have too many heterosexual books in the pipeline?

Ties That Bind, p. 162

Erskine Caldwell:

I think you must remember that a writer is a simple-minded person to begin with and go on that basis.  He's not a great mind, he's not a great thinker, he's not a great philosopher, he's a storyteller.

Yashar Ali:

A remark intended to shut you down like, "Calm down, you're overreacting," after you just addressed someone else's bad behavior, is emotional manipulation, pure and simple.

"A Message to Women From a Man: You Are Not 'Crazy'"

Frank Schaeffer:

I wasted ten years or so of my life chasing "success" in Evangelical and other right-wing circles.  Other than collecting material for future novels (and memoirs), I regret every moment I spent selling myths to the deluded, or I should say that I regret selling myths to myself and then passing them on to people as deluded as I was.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 30

Ellen DeGeneres:

I think I’m just very real, and people sense that. They know everything about me. This is a platform that’s probably more powerful than politics, and I think if you have a loud voice, you should use it for good.

Hugh MacLeod:

So where does your product or service or art fit into other people's narrative?  How does telling your story become a survival tool for other people?

Evil Plans, p. 46

David Cameron:

I once stood before a conservative conference and said it shouldn’t matter whether commitment was between a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, or a man and another man ... Five years on, we’re consulting on legalizing gay marriage. And to anyone who has reservations, I say: Yes, it’s about equality, but it’s also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other.  So I don’t support gay marriage despite being a conservative. I support gay marriage because I’m a conservative.

Sarah Schulman:

What's fascinating about shunning is that people are so distorted by their own sense of supremacy that they actually believe that you will and should follow their command of silence.

Ties That Bind, p. 151

Annie Dillard:

Assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients.  That is, after all, the case....  What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?

The Writing Life

Not Just Another BS Night in Music City

I plan to attend poet/memoirist Nick Flynn's reading at Vanderbilt University this evening.  Flynn has authored a number of books, including Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and several poetry collections.

Frank Schaeffer:

Since the children of professional Christians are raised in what amounts to cocoons and echo chambers, they are often -- literally -- unequipped to do anything except carry on the family business.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 30

Martha Graham:

No artist is pleased.  There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.  There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

Hugh MacLeod:

My last words will be "thank you."

Evil Plans, p. 175

Tonetta Landis:

Be indivisible.  Your Christian world will insist that you cannot be gay.  Your gay world will view you with suspicion because you are a Christian.  You will feel the pulling in your chest.  When this happens, keep in mind that for any part of you to survive authentically, all of you must survive relentlessly.

From "Battle Hymn: A Queer Christian's Guide to More Than Survival"

Sarah Schulman:

Truthful lesbian representations teach straight people, through some trickle down theory, to be kinder to gay people.

Ties That Bind, p. 139

Annie Dillard:

One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time.  Do not hoard what seems good for a later place....  Something more will arise for later, something better.

The Writing Life

Steve Jobs:

I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I've done that sort of thing in my life, but I've always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don't know why. Because they're harder. They're much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you've completely failed.

Frank Schaeffer:

The  Evangelical ghetto is a network of personality cults operating, as far as nepotistic leadership and succession goes, something like North Korea.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 29

Martha Graham:

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.  If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.  The world will not have it.  It is not your business to determine how good it is; nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions.  It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.  You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.  You have to keep open and aware directly of the urges that motivate you.  Keep the channel open.