If a person wants to be of any use to himself, he better insist on getting his fair share of beauty and pleasure, and if there's something about the system that's keeping him from getting his share, then I think he's well within his rights to fight to change that.
Ben FountainThe funny thing is, about the time I let go of any aspiration toward worldly success, that's about the time I started writing decent work.
Ben FountainIt's amazing what happens when you stick yourself in a place and let things take their more or less natural course.
Ben FountainA person deprived of beauty and pleasure puts me in mind of the Haitian notion of a zombie - a person disconnected from his or her soul, a person who works for others' profit but never his own, a person who mindlessly does the bidding of the boss and exists in an emotional and mental limbo.
Ben Fountain