“Among our egocentric sad-sacks, despair is as addictive as heroin and more popular than sex, for the single reason that when one is unhappy one gets to pay a lot of attention to oneself. Misery becomes a kind of emotional masturbation.”
Source: Wild Ducks Flying Backward
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Tom Robbins 250
American writer 1932Related quotes

2010s, Why Penn Jillette is Terrified of a President Trump (2016)
Context: Someone who is paying attention can do the same thing that Trump is doing with hate, and do it with love, and become president … That’s kind of beautiful. There’s nothing more optimistic than that. … Donald Trump does, when it comes right down to it, fuck up everything … He fucks up his casinos. He fucks up his buildings.... Maybe he’ll fuck up his campaign before he fucks up the country.

Interview, IPMU News No 5 (March 2009) http://www.ipmu.jp/ipmu-news/005/012-015-Interview.pdf

“[On Sid Vicious] Yes I can take on England, but I couldn't take on one heroin addict.”
The Filth and the Fury (2000)

“One must not let oneself be overwhelmed by sadness.”
Quoted in The Unknown Wisdom of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1994) edited by Bill Adler

Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 227