Eeeee Eee Eeee Quotes

“There was an enjoyment to being alive, he felt, that because of an underlying meaninglessness–like how a person alone for too long cannot feel comfortable when with others; cannot neglect that underlying the feeling of belongingness is the certainty, really, of loneliness, and nothingness, and so experiences life in that hurried, worthless way one experiences a mistake–he could no longer get at.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“He used to think things like, This organic soymilk will make me healthy and that'll make my brain work better and that'll improve my writing. Also things like, The less I eat the less money I spend on publicly owned companies the less pain and suffering will exist in the world. Now he thinks things like, It is impossible to be happy. Why would anyone think that? ”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Patriotism is the belief that not all human lives are worth the same.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Moose had no friends that year. A lot of the time a moose would feel tired and lean against other moose. Only there wouldn't be moose there and the moose would fall.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“A world without right or wrong was a world that did not want itself, anything other than itself, or anything not those two things, but that still wanted something. A world without right or wrong invited you over, complained about you, and gave you cookies. Don't leave, it said, and gave you a vegan cookie. It avoided eye contact, but touched your knee sometimes. It was the world without right or wrong. It didn't have any meaning. It just wanted a little meaning.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Sometimes an alien would stand with a moose, not because of solidarity, but because of accidentally doing it.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Don't be stupid and awkward," the dolphin says. "You want to walk together or not?"
"You are a stupid piece of shit. Go away from me."

The dolphin goes into the center of a circular clothing rack and quietly cries.”
― tao lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Life is meaningless. Everyone knows this. Look at Fernando Pessoa. He knew the most that life was meaningless. But he was always worrying about things. If life was really meaningless you wouldn’t worry about things”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Was this for real? Andrew had forgotten how to be happy! He suspected that it involved unwarranted feelings of fondness for other people, too much self-esteem, a sort of long-term delusion that manifested as charisma, and a blocking out of certain things, like lonely people, depressed people, desperate people, homeless people, people you've hurt, people you like who don't like you, politics, the nature of being and existence, the continent of Africa, the meat industry, McDonald's, MTV, Hollywood, and most or all of human history, especially anything having to do with the Western Hemisphere between 1400 and 1900, plus or minus 200 years -- but he wasn't sure. Why did it involve so many things? Maybe it was just too hard.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“He sometimes felt that life was something that had already risen, and all of this, the Jackson Pollack of spring, summer, and fall, the vague refrigeration and tinfoiled sky of wintertime, was just a falling, really, originward, in a kind of correction, as if by spritual gravity, towards the wiser consciousness---or consciousnessless, maybe; could gravity trick itself like that?---of death. It was a kind of movement both very slow and very fast; there was both too much and not enough time to think.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Dolphins felt top-heavy, that year, most of the time, and wanted to lie down. When their heads weren’t on top they still felt top-heavy, but metaphysically. In public places they felt sad. They went into restrooms, hugged themselves, and quietly went, ‘Eeeee eee eeee.’ Weekends they went to playgrounds alone. They sat in the top of slides—the enclosed part, where it glowed a little because of the colored plastic—and felt very alert and awake but also very sad and immature. Sometimes they fell asleep and a boy’s mother would prod the dolphin with a broom and the dolphin would go down the slide while still asleep. At the bottom they would feel ashamed and go home and lie in bed. They felt so sad that they believed a little that it was their year to be sad, which made them feel better in a devastated, hollowed-out way. Life was too sad and it was beautiful to really feel it for once; to be allowed to feel it, for one year. When dolphins had these thoughts, usually on weekends at night, it was like dreaming, like a pink flower in a soft breeze on a field was lightly dreaming them. The sadness was like a pink forest that got less dense as you went in and then changed into a field, which the dolphins walked into alone. Sometimes the sadness was like a knife against the face. It made the dolphins cry and not want to move. But sometimes a young dolphin would feel very lonely and ugly and it was beautiful how alone it felt, and it would become restless with how perfect and elegant its sadness was and go away for a long time and then return and sit in its room and feel very alone and beautiful.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“I don’t like happy people,” Andrew said. “They’re already happy; they don’t need to be liked.” “Wow, so selfless,” Mark said. “You’re a saint. I commend your selflessness. Amazing.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“I don’t like happy people,” Andrew said. “They’re already happy; they don’t need to be liked.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Rejection is good. Putting others ahead of self, giving things away. Success, money, power, fame, happiness, friends; any kind of pleasure—giving it all away, in the pyramid scheme of life, with the knowledge that everything will be returned, and being satisfied with that knowledge; not with the actual return of things, but the idea of the return of things. There is no return of things. There is death. Martial arts, deer, death. Singapore, octopus, death.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“The gate has a secret passcode. Sara has a secret passcode. She should. Andrew would stand there for years trying combinations. He wouldn't keep track or develop a strategy but just continue trying different combinations and then Kafka would rise from the grave and write a novel about him.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Sara would call one of those cops on horses a motherfucker. The cop would avert his eyes. Sara would ask directions for the wild wild west.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Everyone is folding boxes. Andrew is folding boxes. If the entire job were to fold boxes people would scream. They would fold, and sometimes scream, existentially, then be dragged into a field and beaten into a paste. Sometimes there would be a killing rampage.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“I made her admit she liked me. She likes me. But we’re too alike. When you’re with someone and neither of you can stop saying good things. Then you both get very aware that life will end soon. I think that’s why we don’t talk that much.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“It’s depressing that people are different. Everyone should be one person, who should then kill itself in hand-to-hand combat.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Andrew saw her next a few months later, from across a street, and she averted her eyes. Did she avert her eyes? Maybe she was being polite when she said ten times and enthusiastically that she was having a lot of fun. Maybe she was being sarcastic. Maybe politeness is the same as sarcasm. Someone should write that book. Against Politeness.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Andrew..makes a shit-eating grin at no one; at a pizza box. He is embarrassed for the pizza box. He folds it. ‘Shit-eating grin.’ He needs to stop. He needs to use his face to convey emotions to other humans in order to move sincerely through life—laughing in groups of three or four; expressing gratitude, concern, or disapproval about people, the weather, or food; and manipulating members of either sex to get them to love him, like him, or respect him. That is what a face is for.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“You’ve read Fernando Pessoa?” Lelu said. “You have?” Andrew said to Lelu. “Yeah, you?” “Yeah,” Andrew said. “You?” Andrew said to the dolphin. “Yeah,” the dolphin said. “Have you?” Andrew said to Shawn. “No,” Shawn said. “Who is he?” “A Portuguese author,” the moose said. The bear slapped the moose. “Who hasn’t read this person?” Shawn said loudly. Everyone had read Fernando Pessoa.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Maybe we should wait until after Thanksgiving for the dog. Thanksgiving is so soon! Aren’t you excited?” “I hate all holidays.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Everyone should be impeached,” Ellen said. “For being so bad at living.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Andrew in his head has an image of a mouth larger than Andrew’s head and the mouth is laughing. Sometimes reading or watching TV Andrew recognizes that a thing is meant to be funny and hears this laughter, in his head, then feels that his face is very calm and neutral, like a hamster’s. At night sometimes Andrew’s heart beats fast and his thoughts are illogical and wild. In bed he looks at the ceiling and feels excited and alert, and can’t understand why he, or anything, exists.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“...each moment of being herself, she knew, was a strengthening, an adapting, of who she was; and she didn’t want to be who she was—that she would squeak a little.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“It was a year, that year, Ellen knew, as she’d noticed from her 10th grade classmates and from observing her family — her new year’s resolution (it was stupid to have one but she was bored in class and made a list, then picked one) had been to be more alert, to think more truthfully about things, and it had affected her, she guessed, with better grades, an increase in self-esteem that was actually just a realization of how dumb everyone was, and nerdy, slightly annoying insights like this one — for doing something not even that exciting or wild and then saying, “Why not?” Or else saying, “Why not?” then doing something sort of forced and meaningless. Mostly people just went around saying, “Why not?” and, later on, when it came time to act, saying, “It’s too hard,” without ever actually doing anything.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“The bear makes a fist, slowly moves the fist to Andrew's face, touches Andrew's face with the knuckles, with its other hand holds the back of Andrew's head and slowly smushes Andrew's face into the knuckles of its hand that it had slowly moved toward then touched the front of Andrew's face with; the hand is furry.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“Pessoa talked about there being no escape,” the bear said. “He was right.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee