Source: The Eclipse: A Memoir of Suicide (2004), P. 188.
“Mowing your lawn is against nature.”
Rufus Wainwright (1973) American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer
Responding to Reverend Lou Sheldon insisting on homosexuality being against the very force of nature, Bill Maher's talk show Politically Incorrect, August 2001
“My bodyguard was mowing the lawn in a pink bikini when the body fell from the sky.”
Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer
Source: Dead Over Heels
Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer
Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You
Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer
Sometimes credited to Jack Kerouac, from his book The Dharma Bums. It is not a quote by Kerouac. It first appeared as a very brief description of The Dharma Bums in Esquire's list of "The 80 Best Books Every Man Should Read" in 2010: http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g96/80-books/?slide=71. It was later copied by Kilburn Hall in his list of 30 "Books and Authors Every Man Should Read" which he first posted online in 2012: https://kilburnhall.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/the-books-and-authors-every-man-should-read/
Misattributed
Donald Justice (1925–2004) Poet, teacher
To the Unknown Lady Who Wrote the Letters Found In the Hatbox
Night Light (1967)
Carole King (1942) Nasa
Pleasant Valley Sunday (1967), co-written with Gerry Goffin, recorded by The Monkees
Song lyrics, Singles
Guy Browning (1964) British comedian
How to... Love, Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade: How to Survive Life’s Smaller Challenges (2004).
Walter E. Williams (1936) American economist, commentator, and academic
Markets, Governments, and the Common Good, speech at Hillsdale College (27 September 2007)
2000s
Context: Say that you hire me to mow your lawn and afterwards you pay me $30. What I have earned might be thought of as certificates of performance, i. e. proof that I served you. With these certificates of performance in hand, I visit my grocer and demand 3 pounds of steak and a six-pack of beer that my fellow man produced. In effect, the grocer asks, "Williams, you're demanding that your fellow man, as ranchers and brewers, serve you; what did you do in turn to serve your fellow man?" I say, "I mowed my fellow man’s lawn." The grocer says, "Prove it!" That's when I hand over my certificates of performance -- the $30.
