“Obsession with self is the motif of our time.”

Source: The Book Thief

Speculation on motives and desires of politically active widows which caused public controversy, p. 103, quoted in &quot;Coulter lambastes 9/11 widows in new book&quot; at MSNBC (7 June 2006) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13186261/. <br class="br">2006, Godless : The Church of Liberalism (2006) <br class="br">Context: These self-obsessed women seemed genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them. The whole nation was wounded, all our lives reduced. But they believed the entire country was required to marinate in their exquisite personal agony. Apparently denouncing Bush was an important part of their closure process. These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much.

Variant: Still though, I think if you're not self-obsessed, you're probably boring.
Source: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Source: Black Genius: African-American Solutions to African-American Problems

Source: The Faith of Leap (2011), p. 58

"Court, Hippies and Love at First Sight"
Stark (1989)

(24 July 2005)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2005
Context: There are many words and phrases that should be forever kept out of the hands of book reviewers. It's sad, but true. And one of these is "self-indulgent." And this is one of those things that strikes me very odd, like reviewers accusing an author of writing in a way that seems "artificial" or "self-conscious." It is, of course, a necessary prerequisite of fiction that one employ the artifice of language and that one exist in an intensely self-conscious state. Same with "self-indulgent." What could possibly be more self-indulgent than the act of writing fantastic fiction? The author is indulging her- or himself in the expression of the fantasy, and, likewise, the readers are indulging themselves in the luxury of someone else's fantasy. I've never written a story that wasn't self-indulgent. Neither has any other fantasy or sf author. We indulge our interests, our obsessions, and assume that someone out there will feel as passionately about X as we do.

The Atheist's Guide to Reality (2011)

Source: 1965 - 1995, Bravura', Per Kirkeby, (1982), chapter 'Klee and the Vikings', p. 83