Tom Robbins Quotes

I believe in nothing, everything is sacred. I believe in everything, nothing is sacred.

Purpose! Purposes are for animals with a hell of a lot more dignity than the human race! Just hop on that strange torpedo and ride it to wherever it's going.

…not a fighter… an adventurer. He doesn’t attack, he engages; He doesn’t defend, he expands; He doesn’t destroy, he transforms; He doesn’t reject, he explores; ….

The price of self-destiny is never cheap, and in certain situations it is unthinkable. But to achieve the marvelous, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.

We only rise above mediocrity when there's something at stake. p. 174

Transformation, liberation and celebration are the themes of all my novels.

'Neotenty' is 'remaining young,' and it may be ironic that it is so little known, because human evolution has been dominated by it.

You don't have to be a genius to recognize one. If you did, Einstein would never have gotten invited to the White House.

Never be afraid to make a fool of yourself. The furthest out you can go is the best place to be.

At birth, we emerge from dream soup. At death, we sink back into dream soup. In between soups, there is a crossing of dry land. Life is a portage.

The more advertising I see, the less I want to buy.

You've heard of people calling in sick. You may have called in sick a few times yourself. But have you ever thought about calling in well

The universe does not have laws. It has habits. And habits can be broken.

It was autumn, the springtime of death.

Meet me in Cognito, baby. In Cognito, we'll have nothing to hide.

If complexity doesn't beat you, paradox will.

To an artist a metaphor is as real as a dollar.

I'm probably more interested in sentences than anything else in life.

Usually, autobiography is such an indulgence of the ego.

Unfortunately, little darlings, there is no such thing as a simple love story.The most transitory puppy crush is complex to the extent of lying beyond the far reaches of the brain's understanding.

Live the beauty or your own reality.

Never be afraid to love, not even when there's a chance you're not being loved in return.

Western civilization was declining too fast for comfort, but too slowly to be very exciting.

Don't talk about it - you'll talk it away. Let the ideas flow from your mind to the page without exposing them to air. Especially hot air.

Peeple of zee wurl, relax

almost any object, including this book you hold, can turn up as Exhibit A in a murder trial.

I journey to the east, where I have been told, there are men who have taught death some manners.

Love is the ultimate outlaw.

Dreams don't come true. Dreams are true.

I am looking for the novelists whose writing is an extension of their intellect rather than an extension of their neurosis.

Things. Cosas. Things attach themselves like leeches to the human soul, then they bleed out the sweetness and the music and the primordial joy of being unencumbered upon the land.

And what would our ideas of God, of religion, be like if they had come to us through the minds of women? Ever think of that?

Heaven is living in your hopes and Hell is living in your fears. It's up to each individual which one he chooses.

Now that I'm in love, I haven't a clue. Now that I'm in love, I'm completely stupid on the subject.

Writing a novel is not so much a project as a journey, a voyage, an adventure.

Life is hard if you think it's hard.

If you were Jesus with missing years to kill where would you go?

But the center can be a harmful place for one who has lived so long on the edge.... Normality is the Great Neurosis of civilization.

Though February lay about her shoulders like a cloak of lead.

This did not annoy Amanda for it had long been her theory that human beings were invented by water as a device for transporting itself from one place to another.

Anyone who maintains absolute standards of good and evil is dangerous. As dangerous as a maniac with a loaded revolver.

He who jokes in the executioners face can be destroyed, but never defeated.

Life is too small a container for certain individuals. Some of them, such as Alobar, huff and puff and try to expand the container. Others, such as Kudra, seek to pry the lid off and hop out.

Magic things are fond of deceptions.

Conservatives understand Halloween, liberals only understand Christmas. If you want to control a population, don't give it social services, give it a scary adversary.

The first thunderstorm of the season was in the dressing room, donning its black robes and its necklace of hailstones, strapping on its electrical sword.

Summer had come to sit on New York's face.

But do we know how to make love stay?' I can't even think about it. The best I can do is play it day by day.

It is what it is. You are what you it. There are no mistakes.

Nobody quite knew what to make of the moon any more.