Conversation, The Gradual Unveiling Of Oneself, Ones Quirks And Characteristics, Opinions And Beliefs;

Conversation, the gradual unveiling of oneself, one’s quirks and characteristics, opinions and beliefs; what a fraught and awkward business that is.

David Nicholls, Us (2014)

"He rather liked people.  It was a major failing in a demon. Oh, he did his best to make their short lives miserable, because that was his job, but nothing he could think up was half as bad as the stuff they thought up themselves.  They seemed to have a talent for it.  It was built into the design, somehow.  They were born into a world that was against them in a thousand little ways, and they devoted most of their energies to making it worse.  Over the years Crowley had found it increasingly difficult to find anything demonic to do which showed up against the natural background of generalized nastiness."

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman - Good Omens

It just occurred to me that people who haven’t read the book don’t know about this amazing analogy

“Sometimes human beings are very much like bees. Bees are fiercely protective of their hive, provided you are outside it. Once you’re in, the workers sort of assume that it must have been cleared by management and take no notice.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman - Good Omens

A stranger is shot in the street, you hardly move to help. But if, half an hour before, you spent just ten minutes with the fellow and knew a little about him and his family, you might just jump in front of his killer and try to stop it. Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know is bad, or amoral, at least. You can’t act if you don’t know.

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes (via wholesomeobsessive)