David Shields > Quotes

“Anything processed by memory is fiction.”
― David Shields

“A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.”
― David Shields

“Copies have been dethroned; the economic model built on them is collapsing. In a regime of superabundant free copies, copies are no longer the basis of wealth. Now relationships, links, connections, and sharing are. Value has shifted away from a copy toward the many ways to recall, annotate, personalize, edit, authenticate, display, mark, transfer, and engage a work. Art is a conversation, not a patent office. The citation of sources belongs to the realms of journalism and scholarship, not art. Reality can’t be copyrighted.”
― David Shields, Reality Hunger: A Manifesto

“Story seems to say that everything happens for a reason and I want to say, No, it doesn’t.”
― David Shields, Reality Hunger: A Manifesto

“No one was dancing, least of all us, because I don't dance in public. My body's a private thing; it doesn't belong to the world at large.”
― David Shields, A Handbook for Drowning: Stories

“When will you stop laughing at misery? I'm so sick and tired of your pseudo-strength. All I want you to do is laugh at what is funny and cry at what isn't, but you won't do that, will you?”
― David Shields, A Handbook for Drowning: Stories