The Pleasure of My Company Quotes

“I understood that as much as I had resisted the outside, as much as I had constricted my life, as much as I had closed and narrowed the channels into me, there were still many takers for the quiet heart.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“Or is it that I think too much?”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“There are few takers for the quiet heart.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“With a cheery delicacy she divided my obsessions into three categories: acceptable, unacceptable, and hilarious.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“Anyway, seeking work is a tad difficult given the poor design of the streets with their prohibitive curbs and driveways that don't quite line up.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“If you saw her in these moments, you might think she was collecting her thoughts in order to go forward. But I see it another way: Her mind is being overwhelmed by two processes that must simultaneously proceed at full steam. One is to deal with and live in the present world. The other is to re-experience and mourn something that happened long ago. It is as though her lightness pulls her toward heaven, but the extra gravity around her keeps her earthbound.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“She had destroyed whatever was between us by making a profound gaffe: She met me.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“She looked down again and I was stymied. I sat. Oh, this was enough to make me love her, because I was right with her, understanding every second and longing to step in. I didn’t even need to know the specific that was troubling her, because to me her halting voice easily stood for the general woe that hangs in the air, even on life’s happiest days.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“She didn't even finish her last sentence; it just trailed off. I think the subject had changed in her head while her mouth had continued on the old topic, not realizing it was out of supplies.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“Thinking too much also creates the illusion of causal connections between unrelated events.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“Finally, we do become wise, but then it's too late”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“I'm smart enough to know that Elizabeth had no doubt seen dozens of men leap over curbs without her falling in love with the leaper, but I do believe this: When an endeavor is special in a person's life, others discern it intuitively and appreciate it more, like the praise a child receives for a lumpy clay sculpture. And as ordinary as such an event might be, it can be instilled with uncommon power.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“They told me to just "act like myself." When I said, "How do I do that?" they said to just have fun with it, but I'm not sure what they meant.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“In the deeper hours of the night I began to look at myself, to consider myself and my condition, to measure the life I'd led so far. I did not know what made me this way. I did not know of any other way I could be. I did not know what was inside me or how I could redeem what was hidden there. There must be a key or person or thing, or song or poem or belief, or old saw that could access it, but they all seemed so far away, and after I drifted further and further into self-absorption, I closed the evening with this desolate thought: there are few takers for the quiet heart.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“I might not seem like the type who could sit at an outdoor cafe drinking a latte, but I am. Why? No motion required. It's just sitting. Sitting and sipping. I can't imagine a neurosis that would prevent one from raising one's arm to one's mouth while holding a cup, though given time, I'm sure I could come up with one.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“At least Clarissa knows I'm benign. But that is not an adjective one wants to throw around about one's spouse: "This is my husband. He's benign.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“I didn’t even need to know the specific that was troubling her, because to me her halting voice easily stood for the general woe that hangs in the air, even on life’s happiest days.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“Sure, I've gotten some disbelieving stares when I've tried to explain this little habit of mine to, say, a bus seatmate. I've watched a guy adjust his posture, or get up and move back several rows, even if it meant he now sat next to someone else who was clearly on the verge of some other kind of insanity.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“I see other people crossing the street at the curb and I don't know how they can do it.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“Clarissa habla conmigo durante exactamente cuarenta y cinco minutos, pero no es psiquiatra cualificada; es estudiante de psiquiatría. De modo que oficialmente es una visitante que tiene los ojos verdes..."

"Si estaba en una misión de recopilación de datos o coqueteaba conmigo, no habría sabido decirlo. Pero que supiera qué fármacos corrían por mis privadas venas era algo profundamente íntimo."

"Hay una tradición solemne en torno a lo clandestino..."

"Ya no pude permitirme crear un código cuando sabía en todo momento que su último fin era ser decodificado."

"Toda ella era una colección de colores pastel, y su piel, con el brillo rosa que irradiaba, contrastaba con la arena blanca y el azul turquesa de su blusa. A partir de su imagen y de los recuerdos que tenía de ella me hice una idea clara de su cualidad más conmovedora: su negativa a estar triste."

"No sabía si los gestos de Clarissa hacía mí eran platónicos, aristotélicos, hegelianos o eróticos. De modo que me quedé allí, unido a ella por tres puntos: su mano en mi nuca, mi mano en su espalda y su pelo acariciándome el costado. Miré el cielo y me pregunté cómo podía estar enamorado de alguien cuyo nombre no era un anágrama..."


Fragmentos de El Placer de mi Compañía,
escrito por Steve Martin”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“My plan was to walk by on my side of the street and not look over her way. This, I felt, was a very clever masculine move: to meet and ultimately seduce through no contact at all. She would be made aware of me as a mysterious figure, someone with no need of her whatsoever. This is compelling to a woman.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“confidently motivated by poor judgment, I dropped in one-quarter of a Quaalude.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“as much as I had resisted the outside, as much as I had constricted my life, as much as I had closed and narrowed the channels into me, there were still many takers for the quiet heart.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“I guessed that one day the restrictions I imposed on myself would end. But first, it seemed that my range of possible activities would have to iris down to zero before I could turn myself around. Then, when I was static and immobile, I could weigh and measure every exterior force and, slowly and incrementally, once again allow the outside in. And that would be my life.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“... because here I was having a life, even though it was a pastiche of elements of the life of someone else.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company