Men who believe that they are accomplishing something by speaking speak in a different way from men who believe that speaking is a waste of time. Bob… - Neal Stephenson

Men who believe that they are accomplishing something by speaking speak in a different way from men who believe that speaking is a waste of time.

Having spent the whole day sifting through incredibly depressing news reports, [the White House press corps] were bouncing back to a kind of giddy frame of mind brought on by a combination of completely natural and understandable happiness that Moab was fine...and schadenfreude directed at the social media companies that had been chipping away at their industry and their job security for the last couple of decades. Pointed questions were asked about how just unbelievably irresponsible those companies had been today and whether the scorpion-filled pits into which their executives should now be lowered should be a thousand meters deep or two thousand.

Richard's ex-girlfriends were long gone, but their voices followed him all the time and spoke to him, like Muses or Furies. It was like having seven superegos arranged in a firing squad before a single beleaguered id, making sure he didn't enjoy that last cigarette.

You could get use to anything. You got used to it and then time raced by, and before you knew it, time was up.