Anthony Jeselnik Quotes

I don't really go out that much, if I'm honest. I'm quite a recluse. If I had my way, I'd probably be at home most of the time with a book and a cup of tea or glass of wine.

I don't do well in social environments.

If only they would all just leave me alone with my books and my letters, I would be content to let life, and the world pass me by

My parents would frisk me before family events. Before weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, and what have you. Because if they didn't, then the book would be hidden inside some pocket or other and as soon as whatever it was got under way I'd be found in a corner. That was who I was...that was what I did. I was the kid with the book.

Books. I'd probably spend all my time alone and lost in books if I could. It's easier that way.

Of course I loved books more than people.

I wished I could be alone in my room, with my books, away from these people.

I simply don't shine in company. Mostly I prefer to retreat with a book.

Whenever he was in company he wanted to get away, and whenever he was alone he wanted company.

Most of my life I have needed more time to be on my own.

The neurotic always wishes people would let him alone - until they do.

But in spite of my great desire for intimacy, I've always been a loner. Perhaps when the longing for connection is as strong as it is in me, when the desire is for something so deep and true, one knows better than to try. One sees that this is not the place for that.

We as beings are very contradictory, complicated creatures that work in our best interest and against our best interest. In a certain way, I want my work to have all that messiness.

I preferred to read than talk with the others.

I live by myself, which I love. In this industry, you're so often surrounded by people and busy and talking to people. It's kind of lovely when you get home to just chill out.

. . . clumsiness is often mated with a love of solitude.

I’m not good at talking,” Naoko said. “Haven’t been for the longest while. I start to say something and the wrong words come out. Wrong or sometimes completely backward. I try to go back and correct it, but things get even more complicated and confused, so that I don’t even remember what I started to say in the first place. Like I was split into two or something, one half chasing the other. And there’s this big pillar in the middle and they go chasing each other around and around it. The other me always latches onto the right word and this me absolutely never catches up

I've never really thought in terms of taboos. I think that books can really help parents and kids talk together about difficult subjects. I've always felt that way.

I loved being in my own head so much, it was getting harder and harder being with other people.

I just feel kind of out of place on Easter. I feel kind of useless because everybody else has kids and I don't and I'm just standing there with nothing to do.

[When] he's here, he's always reading. He says books stop time. I myself think he's crazy...Don't tell anyone, but when he reads something that he likes he gets real happy, turns on the music, and dances by himself, or with a broom sometimes.

Most of the writers I know are weird hybrids. There's a strong streak of egomania coupled with extreme shyness. Writing's kind of like exhibitionism in private. And there's also a strange loneliness, and a desire to have some kind of conversation with people, but not a real great ability to do it in person.

I hate Christmas. Everything is designed for families, romance, warmth, emotion and presents, and if you have no boyfriend, no money, your mother is going out with a missing Portuguese criminal and your friends don't want to be your friend anymore, it makes you want to emigrate to a vicious Muslim regime, where at least all the women are treated like social outcasts. Anyway, I don't care. I am going to quietly read a book all weekend and listen to classical music.

At times, I get very lonely because people are afraid to talk to me or don't wait for me to write a response. I'm shy and tongue-tied at times. I find it difficult to talk to people who I don't know.

whenever possible I avoid talking. Reprieve from talking is my idea of a holiday. At risk of seeming unsociable, which I am, I admit I love to be left in a beatific trance, when I am in one. Friendly Romans recognize that wish.