Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter One
Context: Well, I'll take these pages and move on. Things are happening elsewhere. Things are always happening. It seems wherever I go there is drama. People are like lice - they get under your skin and bury themselves there. You scratch and scratch until the blood comes, but you can't get permanently deloused. Everywhere I go people are making a mess of their lives. Everyone has his private tragedy. It's in the blood now - misfortune, ennui, grief, suicide. The atmosphere is saturated with disaster, frustration, futility. Scratch and scratch, until there's no skin left. However, the effect upon me is exhilarating. Instead of being discouraged or depressed, I enjoy it. I am crying for more and more disasters, for bigger calamities, grander failures. I want the whole world to be out of whack, I want every one to scratch himself to death.
“Every disaster made us wish for something bigger, grander, more sweeping.”
Source: White Noise (1984), Ch. 14
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Don DeLillo 101
American novelist, playwright and essayist 1936Related quotes
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Fable LXIII, "Plutus, Cupid, and Time"
Fables (1727)
“Try to turn every disaster into an opportunity.”
Attributed in The Rockefellers (1976) by Peter Collier and David Horowitz
NAID '95 http://www.club.cc.cmu.edu/pub/scene.org/parties/1995/naid95/misc/dn-naid_089.txt
Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Rivlin-to-pastors-Dividing-Jlem-will-be-disaster, 22 november 2011