“And God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely—
I'll make me a world."”
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) writer and activist
The Creation, st. 1.
God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)
"Robert Anton Wilson on Wilhelm Reich" (March 1995) http://www.wilhelmreichinhell.com/rawonreich.htm <br class="br">Context: I'm using myself as a typical 20th century model as I'm trying to make sense out of the world around me … typical in the sense of being one of the damn good models around these days. I am typical in the sense that... a lot of people are on the same wave length as me. I get fan mail from people that are absolutely stunned that there's somebody else besides themselves who thinks this way. So, we're a minority, but there are a lot of us. On a planet this overcrowded, a minority can have a few million numbers. … More scientific than religious. More open than dogmatic. More optimistic than pessimistic. More future oriented than past oriented. And more humorous than serious. I really dread serious people. Especially serious, dogmatic people. I regard them as sort of what Reich called the emotional plague. I regard them as very dangerous.
“And God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely—
I'll make me a world."”
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) writer and activist
The Creation, st. 1.
God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)
Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter
Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pleasantville-1998 of Pleasantville (1 October 1998) <br class="br">Reviews, Four star reviews <br class="br">Context: In the twilight of the 20th century, here is a comedy to reassure us that there is hope — that the world we see around us represents progress, not decay. Pleasantville, which is one of the year's best and most original films, sneaks up on us. It begins by kidding those old black-and-white sitcoms like "Father Knows Best," it continues by pretending to be a sitcom itself, and it ends as a social commentary of surprising power.<br>…<br>The film observes that sometimes pleasant people are pleasant simply because they have never, ever been challenged. That it's scary and dangerous to learn new ways. The movie is like the defeat of the body snatchers: The people in color are like former pod people now freed to move on into the future. We observe that nothing creates fascists like the threat of freedom.<br>Pleasantville is the kind of parable that encourages us to re-evaluate the good old days and take a fresh look at the new world we so easily dismiss as decadent. Yes, we have more problems. But also more solutions, more opportunities and more freedom. I grew up in the '50s. It was a lot more like the world of Pleasantville than you might imagine. Yes, my house had a picket fence, and dinner was always on the table at a quarter to six, but things were wrong that I didn't even know the words for.
Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie
Variant: I’m trying to make some sense out of the phrase “Everything happens for a reason,” and I think I’ve figured out what the reason is—to piss me off.
Source: Love, Rosie
“I'm trying to make myself invisible."
"That's an odd thing to attempt.”
Lloyd Alexander book The Book of Three
Source: The Book of Three
“I'm not trying to be sexy. It's just my way of expressing myself when I move around.”
Nikita Gokhale (1990) Indian Actress, Indian Model
"‘6 bold statements of Nikita Gokhale’" http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/marathi/movies/6-bold-statements-of-Nikita-Gokhale/6-bold-statements-of-Nikita-Gokhale/photostory/45617534.cms.TimesOfIndia.com. December 23, 2014.
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 42
Variant: First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.
“The world around me is a tuxedo, and I'm a pair of brown shoes.”
Lewis Grizzard (1946–1994) American journalist
“I change as the times change. I'm a reflection of what's around me without trying at all.”
David Lee Roth (1954) Rock vocalist; lead singer with Van Halen
Michael Saunders (March 18, 1994) "The reemergence of David Lee Roth", The Boston Globe, Section: Arts & Film, p. 75.