“The purpose of the poetry is not to dazzle us with an astonishing thought, but to make one moment of existence unforgettable and worthy of unbearable nostalgia.”

“Such is the life of a man. Moments of joy, obliterated by unforgettable sorrow.”

“What I'm saying here is not, I agree, poetry,
as poems should be written rarely and reluctantly,
under unbearable duress and only with the hope
that good spirits, not evil ones, choose us for their instrument.”

“The moments of perfect pleasure in Johnson's songs, and the beauty of those songs, remind one that it is not the simple presence of evil that is unbearable; what is unbearable is the impossibility of reconciling the facts of evil with the beauty of the world.”

“I don’t need to prove the worthiness of my existence to some fuckin’ cunts wearing the coolest gear at the moment. ”

“If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.”

“The value of things is not the time they last, but the intensity with which they occur. That is why there are unforgettable moments and unique people!”

“We all live with it. That unbearable terror is what makes us such singular creatures.”

“Consciousness is not wholly, nor even primarily a device for receiving sense-impressions. …there is another outlook than the scientific one, because in practice a more transcendental outlook is almost universally admitted. …who does not prize these moments that reveal to us the poetry of existence?”

“The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable.”