The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe Quotes

“Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not. We never are. But that’s not the right question. The question is: Are we living a life that is worth the harm?”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“All the beauty in the world was made within the oppressive limitations of time and death and impermanence.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“Be proud of your place in the cosmos. It is small, and yet it is. How unlikely! How fantastic!”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“At your smallest components, you are indistinguishable from a forest fire.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“Be proud of your place in the cosmos. It is so small. And yet it is.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“May we all be human: beautiful, stupid, temporal, endless.
And as the sun sets, I place my hand upon my heart, feel that it is still beating, and remind myself: "Past performance is not a predictor of future results.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“We wake up. We move on. No state is our state forever. All is fleeting.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“Night Vale, my sweet and only Night Vale, may you find love. May you find it wherever it's been hidden. May you find who has been hiding it and extract revenge upon them.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“We all chose to stand down and hope change would be won for us, and not by us. By someone else, we believed. A hero, we believed.
But belief is only step one. Action is step two. Fighting for what you believe is step two. Solidarity is step two. Unity is step two.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“Stay tuned next for our countdown of last words, from “Stop telling me how to drive” all the way to “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“It was a lovely sight," said one witness.

"I cannot even begin to describe the beauty of her ascension," said another.

"You kind of did, though," said another witness, who was wearing a fedora. "By saying you cannot describe something, that is a sort of apophasis (a paralipsis, if you will), which gives the mind an implied description through nondescription," he continued.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“Act natural. Act like all of nature. Act like the entire cycle of life and death and change and rebirth.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“As we all know, the spine ridges of adult cats are highly poisonous. If you are coming to see a kitten that you have adopted, it is important that you check for the location and severity of the spine ridge before attempting any petting. Also, keep your hands away from their mouths. A few of them have developed their venom sacks. We lost two cat adopters already this month, so...let's just be careful people.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“The text also just grows increasingly garbled. For instance, here it says that our new subway system will streamline the rush-hour commute, but about halfway down, it's a series of nearly indecipherable glyphs our experts insist hint at "non-Euclidian emotions" and "appeasement" (though we think this may be a euphemism for "fares").”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“When we talk about freedom, we restrict ourselves to so few images. Images of freedom should be as liberating as the feeling itself!
I want to talk about freedom as a drum set being thrown down a hill, as opening a book one night, and water gushing from the pages until my life is a lake and I swim away.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“This episode isn't about spiders. Nor owls. It's about looking at something and thinking you understand what it is. It's about assuming the best of what you see only to find out quite suddenly that it is the worst.

This kind of misunderstanding has always been, to me, the most compelling kind of horror. The StrexPet here is that issue of Zoobooks.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“As a last resort, with the orange nearing my face and my back pressing hard against the sharp edge of my broadcast table, I grabbed my phone to tell Carlos that if I didn't make it home tonight, it wasn't because I didn't love him, or didn't want to watch a documentary on special scientific graphs, or was too obsessed with my job to relax and enjoy a good meal and some television. It was only because I was zapped out of existence by a lunatic Non-John Peters. And that, in fact, I do love Carlos, and I would want nothing more than to watch a documentary on scientific graphs over some homemade linguini, or go out to eat again, or whatever.

But then, as I grabbed my phone, I thought: That's way too long to write for a text. So I just hit John Peters upside the head with it...”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“The drive was difficult, because at this point it seemed that everyone in town but the two of us had hopped onto the buzzing shadow entity train, and were loping around town as malevolent holes in our reality, emanating an energy that made the hairs on your arm stand and your bowels vibrate. Or maybe that was just the chemistry with Carlos I was feeling.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“Remember, if confronted by a librarian while looking for a book to check out, do not attempt to escape by climbing a tree. There are no trees in the library and the precious moments it will take you to look around and realize this will allow the librarian to strike. Don't become a statistic.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“The universe is unraveling. It still is. We won the day. We won the battle. We won whatever unit of measurement you care to say that we won. We returned to the dangerous equilibrium we had before, which we can only assume, or hope, or wish is better. But, of course, we did not stop the unraveling of the universe. The universe is not a thing that is, it is not a thing at all. It is the very action of its going. It is, in fact, its own dissolves and our lives – the entire span of human existence going back and back and, if we are lucky, forward and forward – the entire span is spent within this dissolve.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“Your music, your lyrics, the leaden prose of your life that proves that everything you are and are not, the structures you build to make futility seem like meaning, the dead and living – who will soon be dead, who will soon be gone, who will soon be smoke – rising in columns and forming clouds in the night sky. For now and ever, by the will of dead and dying gods.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“You will turn yourself inside out. Your sadness will know no bounds. Ladybugs will flee you, wolves run wild in you. You will hear the wind chimes like shattering. The sun will drip ichor. Whatever peace you find will be taken from you. Nothing will be the same. Nothing has ever been the same. “Past performance does not guarantee future results,” you will whisper to the rising moon, as you hear several foxes fleeing your vicinity.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“I am always going somewhere. Someday I won’t have to go. I will just be in the place that I am.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“You won’t sleep when you’re dead, either.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“I don’t have to keep trying. Remember that, I say to myself, as I keep trying.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“When life seems dangerous and unmanageable, just remember that it is, and that you can’t survive forever.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“LAUREN: We here at Strexcorp Synergists, Inc., are dedicated to the betterment of life through branding, social networking, and upbeat music.
KEVIN: And hard work.
LAUREN: I'm pretty sure it's implied that hard work is part of it, Kevin.
KEVIN: I'm pretty sure I didn't ask for your feedback.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“KEVIN: Violent revolution has never solved anything.
CECIL: I beg to differ. America was founded on a revolution. I mean sure, we are still ruled by the reptilians. But the lizard kings let us have our own country after they saw how hard we tried during that revolution thing.
LAUREN: That was decades ago, Cecil.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“KEVIN: But there are many reasons we have to do our broadcasting from here.
LAUREN: It sends a message.
KEVIN: It sure does. It sends several fun messages for everyone to enjoy. Anyway, the boys in Sales, who are all named Shawn, came by and with their help I was able to make this studio feel a little more like home. They put up a bit of a fuss about the changes, but that's just because no one likes change. There are some people who don't understand progress, you know.
LAUREN: I'll miss the Shawns.
KEVIN: I'll miss them too, but look how much nicer this places looks. You can see the Shawns' contributions all over the desk.
LAUREN: And running down the walls. Yes, SO much nicer.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe

“KEVIN: And now a word from our sponsors. Lauren?
LAUREN: Thank, Kev. Can I call you Kev?
KEVIN: Haha. No Lauren, by no means.”
― Joseph Fink, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe