“You define a good flight by negatives: you didn’t get hijacked, you didn’t crash, you didn’t throw up, you weren’t late, you weren’t nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.”

— Paul Theroux , book The Old Patagonian Express

The Old Patagonian Express (1979)

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Paul Theroux 32

American travel writer and novelist 1941

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: The King

“Sometimes, thinking just didn’t do any good, didn’t provide any answers. Because for some questions—such as the arbitrariness of life and death during wartime—there weren’t any answers.”

Charles E. Gannon (1960) American novelist

Source: Trial by Fire (2014), Chapter 27 (p. 402)

“If you were damned certain you weren’t looking for something, there was a very good chance you wouldn’t see it.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 25 (p. 305)

“Life was mostly made up of things you couldn’t control, full of surprises, and they weren’t always good. Life wasn’t what you made it. You were what life made you.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

“It didn’t pay very much, but it enabled me to get other jobs doing art criticism, which I didn’t want to do very much, but as so often when you exhibit reluctance to do something, people think you must be very good at it. If I had set out to be an art critic, I might never have succeeded.”

John Ashbery (1927–2017) poet from the United States

Source: The Paris Review (Issue 90, Winter 1983)

“What defines you isn’t how many times you
crash, but the number of times you get back.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Variant: What defines you isn't how many times you crash but the number of times you get back.
Source: Along for the Ride

“Any problems with your flight? (Acheron)
I didn’t eat my pilot if that’s what you mean. And little Nicky here is still breathing and not bleeding. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“Hephaestus glowered up at us. “I didn’t make you, did I?”

Uh,” Annabeth said, “no, sir.”

Good,” the god grumbled. “Shoddy workmanship.”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

“I hope you guys are up for a fight. I hope you guys are game because I haven’t been putting up with 19 months of airplanes and hotel food and missing my babies and my wife — I didn’t put up for that stuff just to come in second.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

To supporters at a fund-raising party at Jon Bon Jovi's mansion in Duryea, Pennsylvania, (5 September 2008)
"Obama: 'I Don't Believe in Coming in Second'" by Jeff Zeleny (6 September 2008) http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/obama-i-dont-believe-in-coming-in-second/
2008

“The bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more. you're all good.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

“You define a good flight by negatives: you didn’t get hijacked, you didn’t crash, you didn’t throw up, you weren’t late, you weren’t nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.”

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Paul Theroux 32

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