How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"What if those so-called negative feelings are useful?"
[…]
"I mean, suppose you take your anger and you channel it into a painting. Pretty soon, you don't care about getting back at that idiot who pissed you off anymore because you're totally into your painting. And then maybe that painting hangs in a gallery someday and it inspires other people to find their thing, whatever it is. You've influenced the world not because you wanted to hug it and cuddle it and call it sweet thing but because one day you wanted to beat the crap out of somebody but you didn't. You made a painting instead. And you couldn't have made that painting without that feeling, without something to push off against. We human beings can't evolve without the pain." (25.86-88)
This is a life lesson that Cam needs to learn so badly. Instead of going around trying to be numb to the pain, he should be embracing it and turning it into something else.
Quote #8
As a kid, I imagined lots of different scenarios for my life. I would be an astronaut. Maybe a cartoonist. A famous explorer or rock star. Never once did I see myself standing under the window of a house belonging to some druggie named Carbine, waiting for his yard gnome to steal his stash so I could get a cab back to a cheap motel where my friend, a neurotic, death-obsessed dwarf, was waiting for me so we could get on the road to an undefined place and a mysterious Dr. X, who would cure me of mad cow disease and stop a band of dark energy from destroying the universe. (28.166)
Does anyone ever end up being what he or she thought they would be when they were kids? Life takes us on unexpected paths, and we can't all be princesses and firemen. Not all of us befriend a cursed Viking god either, though, so we see Cam's point.
Quote #9
"I just wanted to know what's next," I say.
"You people slay me," she says with a laugh, and there's an edge to it. "Always worrying, 'What will happen? What's next?' Always everywhere but where you actually are. You just don't get it."
"Get what?"
"Here. Now. This." She gestures wide, turns around. "This is it, cowboy. The whole ride. Pay attention." (33.15-18)
This is one of the book's central themes. It is important, especially today when people seem to be busier than ever, to learn how to simply be present.