Great Throughts Treasury

"The goal is to live a full, productive life even with all that ambiguity. No matter what happens, whether the cancer never flares up again or whether you die, the important thing is that the days that you have had you will have lived."

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity."

"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. "

"While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die - whether it is our spirit, our creativity or our glorious uniqueness. "

"Adopted kids are such a pain - you have to teach them how to look like you."

"Comedy is very controlling - you are making people laugh."

"Doctors are whippersnappers in ironed white coats Who spy up your rectums and look down your throats And press you and poke you with sterilized tools And stab at solutions that pacify fools. I used to revere them and do what they said Till I learned what they learned on was already dead."

"Dreams are like paper, they tear so easily."

"Having cancer gave me membership in an elite club I'd rather not belong to."

"Fame changes a lot of things, but it can't change a light bulb."

"I can always be distracted by love, but eventually I get horny for my creativity."

"I always wanted a happy ending... Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity."

"I grew up in front of a television. I guess I'll grow old inside of one."

"I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn't itch."

"I think clothes should make you feel safe. I like clothes you want to go to sleep in. I sometimes stand in front of a mirror and change a million times because I know I really want to wear my nightgown."

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive."

"I'd much rather be a woman than a man. Women can cry, they can wear cute clothes, and they're the first to be rescued off sinking ships."

"I would say that Lucy, 'I Love Lucy,' she was my idol."

"I'm so full I can't hear."

"It is so hard for us little human beings to accept this deal that we get. It's really crazy, isn't it? We get to live, then we have to die. What we put into every moment is all we have… What spirit human beings have! It is a pretty cheesy deal—all the pleasures of life, and then death."

"Some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end."

"I'm not really an impersonator."

"There is no real security except for whatever you build inside yourself."

"It's like my father always said to me, he said to me, he said, Roseanna Roseanadana, it's always something. If it isn't one thing--it's another! It's always something."

"The more I protested about this ambiguity, the more Joanna pointed out to me that it was both a terrible and wonderful part of life: terrible because you can't count on anything for sure--like certain good health and no possibility of cancer; wonderful because no human being knows when another is going to die--no doctor can absolutely predict the outcome of a disease. The only thing that is certain is change. Joanna calls all of this 'delicious ambiguity.' 'Couldn't there be comfort and freedom in no one knowing the outcome of anything and all things being possible?' she asked. Was I convinced? Not completely. I still wanted to believe in magic thinking. But I was intrigued."

"You feel completely in control when you hear a wave of laughter coming back at you that you have caused."

"While we have the gift of life, it seems to me that only tragedy is to allow part of us to die - whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness."

"You'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap."