“It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

Playboy interview (1973)
Context: It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life. There are people, particularly dumb people, who are in terrible trouble and never get out of it, because they're not intelligent enough. It strikes me as gruesome and comical that in our culture we have an expectation that man can always solve his problems. This is so untrue that it makes me want to cry — or laugh.

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Kurt Vonnegut 318

American writer 1922–2007

Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978) American writer and art critic

Source: Art & Other Serious Matters, (1985), p. 14, "Movement in Art"

“When I make an album I take a lot of risks. I ignore the trends of the moment and one of the things I have to think of when making an album like this is the honesty of it. To connect. It goes against the grain. It's nice to know I can go against the grain.”

Josh Groban (1981) American musician and actor

Miami Herald, 4/23/04

“Public life is a situation of power and energy; he trespasses against his duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he that goes over to the enemy.”

Edmund Burke book Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)

“I think the American dream is still what gets us out of bed every day, that life can be better…”

Vanessa Hua American journalist and writer

On the state of the “American Dream” in “A Conversation with Vanessa Hua” https://www.readitforward.com/author-interview/a-conversation-with-vanessa-hua/ in Read It Forward

“When you get older, as a leading lady it gets harder…You try not to have someone else upstage or take the shine. When I play character roles I am usually playing people who are slightly over the top, so that goes fine.”

Jane Seymour (1951) English-American actress

On staying the course as a leading lady in “Jane Seymour: 'I try not to let anyone upstage me'” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/jane-seymour-i-try-not-to-let-anyone-upstage-me/ in The Telegraph (2016 Apr 10)