Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future, the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit.
Tom RobbinsSociety had a crime problem. It hired cops to attack crime. Now society has a cop problem.
Tom RobbinsI removed the freeway from its temporal context. Overpasses, cloverleafs, exit ramps took on the personality of Mayan ruins for me. Without destination, without cessation, my run was often silent and empty; there were no increments, no arbitrary graduations reducing time to functional units. I abstracted and purified.
Tom RobbinsGet yourself in that extreme state of being next to madness. You should always write with an erection. Even if you're a woman.
Tom RobbinsThe trouble with you is that the only way you can communicate is through art. Youโve never learned to communicate your feelings to a man. You donโt even want to communicate in a relationship. You think that if you open up to love, youโll lose your independence or your self-expression or creativity or whatever you call all that passionate, wonderful stuff that makes you feel alive inside.
Tom Robbins