“A picture story just doesn’t run like a film. It doesn’t have 24 frames per second. It doesn’t deal with this illusion of movement.”

I think architectural appreciation would be a minor occupation after a nuclear war. People would just be happy to have something to eat.

I live in an apartment building built in 1925, and it hasn’t been heavily renovated, so I feel very much connected to that time and what went on in that place.

The click [of a light switch] is the modern triumphal clarion proceeding us through life, announcing our entry into every lightless room.

Really interesting novels, they always are so demanding of you on some level that you don’t fall asleep.

You know how misleading an image is. You see an image in the newspaper, if they left the caption off, good luck knowing what’s going on. There is something inherently misleading about images, so they need annotation.

A picture story just doesn’t run like a film. It doesn’t have 24 frames per second. It doesn’t deal with this illusion of movement. It’s more like if you did an illuminated novel.

I never wore a watch. I always depend on public clocks, and stores have clocks, but that is strange.

You can have your own watch and always doubt it. If I had a watch I’d probably always be doubting it or the batteries would be dying. I just know that people always have trouble with their watches, and that’s why I like public clocks.

I’ve wasted the last five years of my life dealing in religious articles. People today find spiritual solace in ballroom dancing.

As a small kid, I came across things like these early Edward Gorey books in department-store bookstores. These were these really unusual objects to me. I didn’t know how they fit into the comic world or into newspaper comics.

I always lived in old buildings, and I thought about who lived here before. You’d have to be oblivious not to.

I’m very interested in music and where these sounds of Western music come from.

How can you think that that will evoke the past? It doesn’t even have to evoke anything, but anyway, it’s how we’re living. It’s this moment where nobody has to immediately think too much about how things are being documented. It’s a great time.

Certain movies that are trying to evoke history are just like being in an antique store, and all you notice is that all the stuff has been gathered together, and it feels like a pile of antiques.

I was born Moishe Ketzelbourd but the Indians call me Maurice Cougar.

Goat curry and a female librarian, that’s what I’m in the mood for.

Why would I want to run for Congress and continue to get tainted with all the things that people get tainted with as they come along the system.

It takes a lot more than ability to run fast; it takes the ability to keep coming back and coming back.

Standing even for a short time proves exhausting compared with walking and running though it be for a long time … Nature delights and is restored by alternating and varied actions.

You know if there is a rabid dog running around your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog, and you’re probably gonna put your children out of the way. Doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs by any stretch of the imagination.

One cannot be arraigned for declaring a war, which every ruler has to do once in a while, but only for running a war badly.

Medical science in particular will get exponentially better, especially once computers will be powerful enough to digitally simulate entire human brains, meaning medical experiments that would normally take years can be digitally run taking only hours.

Two things are bad for the heart – running up stairs and running down people.

Then I will tell you something. I do not believe in it. Forty years among men has consistently taught me that they are not amenable to commonsense.