i understand that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. i understood that, finally and absolutely, i alone exist. all the rest, i saw, is merely what pushes me, or what i push against, blindly - as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. i create the whole universe, blink by blink.
John GardnerThey watch on, evil, incredibly stupid, enjoying my destruction. 'Poor Grendel's had an accident,' I whisper. 'So may you all.
John GardnerOne of the many interesting challenges nature presents us is its apparent disinterest in maintaining the order humans crave.
John GardnerArt Gropes. It stalks like a hunter lost in the woods, listening to itself and to everything around it, unsure of itself, waiting to pounce.
John GardnerI couldn't go on, too conscious all at once of my whispering, my eternal posturing, always transforming the world with words--changing nothing.
John Gardner