Isn't It Pretty To Think So? Quotes

“Light is always more beautiful when it has to fight to be noticed, like sunlight fighting through the clouds after a rainstorm.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“Beauty is not always as perfect as we imagine it to be, but it can be damn close if we learn to accept the scary parts or the ugly parts.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“Some people are good at being in love. Some people are good at love. Two very different things, I think. Being in love is the romantic part—sex all the time, midday naps in the sheets, the jokes, the laughs, the fun, long conversations with no pauses, overwhelming separation anxiety … Just the best sides of both people, you know? But love begins when the excitement of being in love starts to fade: the stress of life sets in, the butterflies disappear, the sex becomes a chore, the tears, the sadness, the arguments, the cattiness … The worst parts of both people. But if you still want that person by your side through all of those things … that’s when you know—that’s when you know you’re good at love.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“Travel is wishing for one more bite of whatever that just was.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“An awfulness was deep inside me, and I couldn't fight it; forced into submission and taken hostage by it, I could only just lie there, let it wash over me, and let myself be consumed by it. If I cooperate, maybe it won't stay too long; maybe it'll let me go free. But if I fight it, it might stay longer just to spite me. So I decided to let The Feeling inhabit me as long as it desired, while I lay still, cautious not to incite me, secretly hoping it would leave me soon and bother someone else, but outwardly, pretending to be its gracious host. The most discouraging element of what I felt was my inability to understand it. Usually when I was filled with an unpleasant feeling, I could make it go away, or at least tame it, by watching a light-hearted film or reading a good book or listening to a feel good album. But this feeling was different. I knew non of those distractions could rid me of it. But I knew nothing else. I couldn't even describe it. Is this depression? Maybe once you ask someone to describe depression, he can't find the words. Maybe I'm part of the official club now. I imagined myself in a room full of people where someone in the crowd, also suffering from depression, immediately noticed me-as if he detected the scent of his own kind-walked over, and looked into my eyes. He knew that I had The Feeling inside me because he, too, da The Feeling inside him. He didn't ask me to talk about it, because he understood that our type of suffering was ineffable. He only nodded at me, and I nodded back; and then, during our moment of silence, we both shared a sad smile of recognition, knowing that we only had each other in a room filled with people who would never understand us, because they didn't have The Feeling inside them.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“I'd begun to grow weary of my constant daydreaming because, as I retreated more often into fantasy, it had become a reminder of my growing discontent with real life. And my thoughts, after very little sleep, seemed to float even further into the realm of the superfluous.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“I know now that truth is a troubling thing. You can't drink your way to it. You can't snort your way to it. You can't fuck your way to it. You can't love your way to it. You can only let it envelop you and try to make sense of it all.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“I told him I’m not sleeping with him. I’m not that easy,” she says. “Still, he invites me to Vegas and tells me he’ll get me my own private suite, and that I could invite my girlfriends. So, I mean, my girlfriends and I obviously decide to go. When we get there, he lets us go shopping with his credit card. So we bought new clothes, facials, massages, purses, everything! Then we joined him and his friends for dinner … Our dinner bill was, like—can you believe this?—$30,000! It was all the wine, appetizers, entrees, desserts, and champagne. The next week, I ignored his phone calls. I mean, I can’t be bought.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“but to write it well and write the time well, you must learn to love your subjects to their core, even if you hate them, because, as a writer in the present, they’re your only beautiful muses in this world. I’m quite convinced that very few, if any, can do it alone. Jake, you must understand something … you must understand that momentary rage is good, but that abiding hate is ruinous. Don’t hide from people in hate when you can rage silently in their presence. Rage means you’re alive. Rage brings you closer to the truth. Misanthropes have nothing to write about, because they’re already dead, and writing is for the living.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“Do you really feel that out of place, that lonely? Because I feel that lonely, too. Sometimes I feel like I’m just watching my daily life play out on a giant projection screen, while I’m living my real life in my head, or something. I don’t know. If I was in a room with a thousand people, I’d still feel alone.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

“Every morning, I felt a little excitement as I checked my email, as if part of me believed there would be an unread message - with a beautiful, boldfaced title - waiting in my inbox that would bring me great news or inject energy into my humdrum routine, or, in the highest of hopes, change the course of my prosaic life.”
― Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?