
“It's so hard to understand why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam.”
When You're Young (1979)
Source: Apathy and Other Small Victories
“It's so hard to understand why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam.”
When You're Young (1979)
“No, I do not weep at the world. I'm too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928)
Source: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings
Context: I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to that sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world — I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.
“The world is my oyster
and now I’ll take a shower of stars.”
"Aphrodite's Aphrodisiac"
Goddess Gone Fishing for a Map of the Universe (2012)
Source: Interview with Jonathan Shiff https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/screen-news/2018/06-18-international-tv-sales-snapshot-for-2017/part-4-interview-with-jonathan-shiff (18 June 2018)
As quoted in The 48 Laws of Power (2000) by Robert Greene, p. 33