Not naive,” Conch Shell had corrected him, “He simply has not been taught to fear the things you fear.
—Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All (via slaughterhousefive)
Not naive,” Conch Shell had corrected him, “He simply has not been taught to fear the things you fear.
—Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All (via slaughterhousefive)
Anyone who maintains absolute standards of good and evil is dangerous. As dangerous as a maniac with a loaded revolver. In fact, the person who maintains absolute standards of good and evil usually is the maniac with the revolver.
—Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All (via slaughterhousefive)
When humans were young, they were pushed around in strollers. When they were old, they were pushed around in wheelchairs. In between, they were just pushed around.
—Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All (via slaughterhousefive)
The Divine was expansive, but religion was reductive. Religion attempted to reduce the Divine into a knowable quantity with which mortals might efficiently deal, to pigeonhole it once and for all so that we never had to reevaluate it. With hammers of cant and spikes of dogma, we crucified and crucified again, trying to nail to our stationary alters the migratory light of the world.
—Skinny Legs and All, Tom Robbins
Every other person on the street was the failed consort of one muse or another. One met them everywhere. The would-be guitarist who just couldn’t find the time to practice, the would-be novelist who developed an allergy to solitude, the would be actress too weak to withstand domestic and materialistic urges, the would-be poet who found it easier to get drunk on booze than on language, the would-be filmmaker who for lack of pluck ended up in advertising; the singer, the potter, the dancer who for want of that extra volt of verve, that extra enzyme of dedication, that extra candlepower of courage were doomed to paper the walls of their lives with frustrated fantasies and secret dissatisfactions.
—Skinny Legs and All, Tom Robbins
The level of structure that people seek is always in direct ratio to the amount of chaos they have inside.
—Skinny Legs and All, Tom Robbins
But these artist you’re describing, the self-promoting crybabies what are intentionally being schlockmeisters and gonifs, they dream the new American dream. And the new one is to achieve wealth and recognition without having the burden of intelligence, talent, sacrifice, or the human values what are universal.
—Skinny Legs and All, Tom Robbins
But I do know that people who really excel at things- whether it’s creating art or running a business- hardly ever make a fuss about equality, except maybe on the scales of justice. Equal opportunity, yes. Equal results, impossible. The ones who’re so upset about everybody not being the same, about competition, about standards of quality, about art objects having ‘auras’ around them, they’re usually people with average abilities and average minds. And below average senses of humor. Whether it’s a matter of lifting the deprived up or dragging the gifted down, they want everyone to function on their level. Some fun that would be.
—Skinny Legs And All, Tom Robbins
It would seem that the brain has so many curtains between itself and the true universe that eventually light can no longer reach it, and it molds and rots and festers in the dark.
—Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All
If committed in the name of God or country, there is no crime so heinous that the public will not forgive it.
—Skinny Legs and All, Tom Robbins
