Thomas M. Disch Quotes

So, without saying anything to the others, it made its way to the farthest corner of the meadow and began to toast an imaginary muffin. That was always the best way to unwind when things got to be too much for it.

The distances between the stars seem brief by contrast to the distances between each of us and his fellows.

But the toaster was quite satisfied with itself, thank you. Though it knew from magazines that there were toasters who could toast four slices at a time, it didn't think that the master, who lived alone and seemed to have few friends, would have wanted a toaster of such institutional proportions. With toast, it's quality that matters, not quantity.

(Shoddiness is) the nature of human life. It takes an exertion to be indifferent to these things, but it's an exertion worth making. Also, it allows you luxuries like scorn and flippancy.

America is a nation of liars, and for that reason science fiction has a special claim to be our national literature, as the art form best adapted to telling the lies we like to hear and to pretend we believe.

Thought is a disease of the brain. The mind defends itself against the degenerative process of creativity; it begins to jell; notions solidify into inalterable systems.

It considered trying to explain their error to them, but what would be the use? They would only go away with hurt feelings. You can't always expect people, or squirrels, to be rational.

What to Accept
The fact of mountains. The actuality
Of any stone - by kicking, if necessary.
The need to ignore stupid people,
While restraining one's natural impulse
To murder them. The change from your dollar,
Be it no more than a penny,
For without a pretense of universal penury
There can be no honor between rich and poor.
Love, unconditionally, or until proven false.
The inevitability of cancer and/or
Heart disease. The dialogue as written,
Once you've taken the role. Failure,
Gracefully. Any hospitality
You're willing to return. The air
Each city offers you to breathe.
The latest hit. Assistance.
All accidents. The end.

Here was a flower (the daisy reflected) strangely like itself and yet utterly unlike itself too. Such a paradox has often been the basis for the most impassioned love.

In any case, muffins that are only imaginary aren't liable to get stuck.

The forest stretched on seemingly forever with the most monotonous predictability, each tree just like the next - trunk, branches, leaves; trunk, branches, leaves. Of course a tree would have taken a different view of the matter. We all tend to see the way others are alike and how we differ, and it's probably just as well we do, since that prevents a great deal of confusion. But perhaps we should remind ourselves from time to time that ours is a very partial view, and that the world is full of a great deal more variety than we ever manage to take in.

Gender and the complications it gives rise to simply aren't relevant to the lives appliances lead.

The gods, after all, are only human, and once their rage has been placated they are perfectly capable of acts of mercy and grace.

Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist.

The problem is that we've got a sense of humor and (Republicans have) got guns. Will we die laughing?

Writers tend to consider distinction and originality as virtues, but they are anathema to publishers.

Genius is an infinite capacity for pain.

Creativeness is finding patterns where none exist.

Sameness is what marketers want us to want.

Much that is terrible we do not know. Much that is beautiful we shall still discover. Let's sail till we come to the edge.

But before any of the small appliances who may be listening to this tale should begin to think that they might do the same thing, let them be warned: ELECTRICITY IS VERY DANGEROUS. Never play with old batteries! Never put your plug in a strange socket! And if you are in any doubt about the voltage of the current where you are living, ask a major appliance.

For a lot of people, poetry tends to be dull. It's not read much. It takes a special kind of training and a lot of practice to read poetry with pleasure. It's like learning to like asparagus.

He thought proudly that many people in his position could not have adjusted, would have gone mad.

Of course, he was descending.…

But he was still sane. He had chosen his course and now he was following it.

All children ... feel a demonic sympathy with those things that cause disorder in the grown-up world.

Laughter is just a slowed down scream of terror.

When one is experiencing failure, it is hard to resist the comfort of paranoia.

A predilection for genre fiction is symptomatic of a kind of arrested development.