David Shields Quotes

7 Sourced Quotes

Our culture is obsessed with real events because we experience hardly any,

David Shields

A book should either allow us to escape existence or teach us how to endure it.

David Shields

Thomas Jefferson went through the New Testament and removed all the miracles, leaving only the teachings. Take a source, extract what appeals to you, discard the rest. Such an act of editorship is bound to reflect something of the individual doing the editing: a plaster cast of an aesthetic-not the actual thing, but the imprint of it.

David Shields

I don't know what's the matter with me, why I'm so adept at distance, why I feel so remote from things, why life feels like a rumor.

David Shields

Resolution and conclusion are inherent in a plot-driven narrative.

David Shields

If I'm reading a book and it seems truly interesting, I tend to start reading back to front in order not to be too deeply under the sway of progress.

David Shields

You're one of 6.5 billion people now on the planet, and 99.9 percent of your genes are the same as everyone else's.

David Shields