Sheila Ballantyne quotes:

The trouble with going crazy is that you have to go around making it up to everyone afterwards. It seems they should be making something up to you.

Californians are good at planning for the earthquake, while simultaneously denying it will happen.

Ghetto humor is the social twin of fantasy; together they sustain the powerless, who accomplish miracles through illusion.

in California death is one of the most successfully kept secrets there is. If you doubt this, try to find a cemetery.

Sundays are terrible because it is clear that there is no one in charge of the world. And this knowledge leave you drifting around, grappling with unfulfilled expectations and vague yearnings.

The freeway is the last frontier. It is unsurpassed as a training ground for the sharpening of survival skills.

The moon develops the imagination, as chemicals develop photographic images.

You might not have thought it possible to give birth to others before one has given birth to oneself, but I assure you it is quite possible, it has been done; I offer myself in evidence as Exhibit A.

It's unbelievable the primitive feelings that are aroused by rapid change.

Life is like a great jazz riff. You sense the end the very moment you were wanting it to go on forever.

You can always trust information given you by people who are crazy; they have an access to truth not available through regular channels.

everything is ambiguous. It's exciting, in a way, if you can tolerate ambiguity. I can't, but I'm taking a course where it's taught, in the hope of acquiring the skill. It's called Modern Living, and you get no credit.

I can't wait fifteen years to do my work: Because my ideas are coming now.

If you have enough fantasies, you're ready, in the event that something happens.

illusions are crucial to the maintenance of life functions ...

Inner resources are like natural resources; they both dry up eventually when the demands on them are heavy.

It's expectation that differentiates you from the dead.

Some of my best friends are illusions. Been sustaining me for years.

There is no irritant as painful as an ace up your sleeve that you can never use; it's the kind of thing that causes oysters to produce pearls.