Quotes by Mary Karr

“We're not made to wallow in pleasure. Pleasure is joy's assassin.”

“The head can travel a far piece while the body sits in one spot. It can traverse many decades, and many conversations can be had, even with the dead.”

“Joy, it is, which I’ve never known before, only pleasure or excitement. Joy is a different thing, because its focus exists outside the self – delight in something external, not satisfaction of some...”

“Tomorrow! How sweet its prospects for a drunkard the night before. There is no better word. Before the earth hurls itself into sunshine, nothing is not possible.”

“It's hard to be an articulate ghost.”

“Slurping these spirits is soul preparation, a warped communion, myself serving as god, priest, and congregation.”

“Standing in the shower, I feel something on the back of my leg that turns out to be my ass.”

“I loved the idea that looking at a painting or listening to a concerto could make you somehow "transcend" the day-in, day-out bullshit that grinds you down: how in one instant of pure attention you...”

“That bar also delineated the realm of sweat and hourly wage, the working world that college was educating me to leave. Rewards in that realm were few. No one congratulated you for clocking out. You...”

“Just being out of the house with Daddy like this at Fisher's lights me up enough for somebody to read by me.”

“Being smart and rich are lucky, but being curious and compassionate will save your ass. Being curious and compassionate can take you out of your ego and edge your soul towards wonder.”

“Bad things are gonna' happen to you, because they happen to us all. And worrying won't stave the really bad things off. Don't make the mistake of comparing your twisted-up insides to other people's...”