“Why do we never expect dull people to be rascals?”

— Mason Cooley

City Aphorisms, Thirteenth Selection (1994)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Mason Cooley 23

American academic 1927–2002

Jens Risom (1916–2016) American furniture designer

Block Island Times, Meet Jens Risom by Jane Vercelli, Spring 2010, House and Garden Edition, New Shoreham, Rhode Island USA.

“Why do you steal, you rascal? Why don't you look for some honest work?"
"Because, sir, I am hungry. Any work that will permit me to feed myself is honest enough for me.”

Nguyễn Công Hoan (1903–1977)

Dead End (or Impasse, 1938), as quoted in Understanding Vietnam by Neil L. Jamieson (University of California Press, 1995), p. 159

“Actresses are such very dull people off the stage. We are only delightful and brilliant when we are doing what we are told to do. Off stage we are awful chumps.”

Edith Evans (1888–1976) British actress

As quoted in Dame Edith Evans, ch. 12, by Bryan Forbes (1977)

“Why is it we can never love the people we ought to?”

Sarah Waters The Night Watch

Source: The Night Watch

“Why was I holding on to something that would never be mine? But isn't that what people do?”

Bret Easton Ellis book Lunar Park

Source: Lunar Park

“We are never prepared for what we expect.”

James A. Michener Caravans

Source: Caravans

“Why do we live? Most of us need the very thing we never ask for.”

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) American poet

Letter to Robert McAlmon (4 September 1943), published in The Selected Letters of William Carlos Williams (1957) edited by John C. Thirlwall, p. 217
General sources
Context: Why do we live? Most of us need the very thing we never ask for. We talk about revolution as if it was peanuts. What we need is some frank thinking and a few revolutions in our own guts; to hell with what most of the sons of bitches that I know and myself along with them if I don't take hold of myself and turn about when I need to — or go ahead further if that's the game.

“We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

“Happiness is often presented as being very dull but, he thought, lying awake, that is because dull people are sometimes very happy and intelligent people can and do go around making themselves and everyone else miserable.”

Ernest Hemingway book Islands in the Stream

Pt. 1: Bimini, Section 8
Islands in the Stream (1970)

“Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ask questions. If I had answers, I'd be a politician.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

As quoted in The Writer's Quotation Book : A Literary Companion (1980) by James Charlton, p. 44

“Why do we never expect dull people to be rascals?”

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Mason Cooley 23

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