The enemy is every expert who practices technocratic manipulation, the enemy is every proponent of standardization and the enemy is every victim who is so dull and lazy and weak as to allow himself to be manipulated and standardized.
Tom RobbinsThe mission of the artist in an over-technologi zed society, is to call the old magic back to life.
Tom RobbinsI don't want to give the impression that I hold daily conversations with my household appliances, although my toaster is as old as Drew Barrymore and almost as talented.
Tom RobbinsWe all dream profusely every night, yet by morning we've forgotten ninety percent of what went on. That's why poets are such important members of society. Poets remember our dreams for us.
Tom RobbinsWhen I go to the shore, I take along the poems of Pablo Neruda. I suppose it's because the poems are simultaneously lush and ripe and kind of lazy, yet throbbing with life - like summer itself.
Tom RobbinsWhen we accept bad art because it's good politics, we're killing the swan to feed the chickens.
Tom RobbinsWhat bothers most critics of my work is the goofiness. One reviewer said I need to make up my mind if want to be funny or serious. My response is that I will make up my mind when God does, because life is a commingling of the sacred and the profane, good and evil. To try and separate them is fallacy.
Tom RobbinsLaughter is holier than piety, freedom is sweeter than fame, and in the end it's love and love alone that really matters.
Tom RobbinsI like travelers, but I don't like tourists. The difference is that travelers don't shop and they don't play golf.
Tom RobbinsTime passed. Art came off the walls and became rituals. Ritual became religion. Religion spawned science. Science led to big business. And big business, if it continues on its present, mindless trajectory, could land those lucky enough to survive its ultimate legacy back into caves again.
Tom RobbinsIn East of Eden, John Steinbeck wrote that there's never been a great creative collaboration. When the Beatles first burst on the scene, I thought they were proving him wrong. Later, we learned that Lennon and McCartney had each composed their pop masterpieces separately, individually. So it goes.
Tom RobbinsI work with pen and paper. That's my favorite way to write. I love the way the ink sinks into the wood, soaks into the wood pulp. There's something about that process that's so organic.
Tom RobbinsIf the novelist isn't surprised by where his book ends up, he or she probably hasn't written anything worth remembering.
Tom Robbins