William H. Gass Quotes

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.

People are incredible creatures of habit.

If I'm in the country, my big idea is to do nothing. It means talking, it means cooking with the leftovers in the fridge - l'art d'accommoder les restes - it means gardening.

I suppose you inevitably fall into habits of expression.

Fashion has always been a repetition of ideas, but what makes it new is the way you put it together.

Structure is one of the things that I always hope will reveal itself to me.

I sometimes feel that a pattern is almost a fashion statement in itself.

I fell in love with flora of all types, especially ferns. Loved the sparse structure and repetition of shape - almost fractal.

No bird has ever uttered note That was not in some first bird's throat; Since Eden's freshness and man's fall No rose has been original.

I'm actually a very lazy person. Most of the time, I'm happy to sit around and stare. Or watch bad TV soaps. It's quite rare for me to get inspired by anything, but it could be something small. A view of the Serpentine. A snatch of music. Or a little shred of conversation overheard on a bus, such as, 'You also will marry someone of my choice.'

Things work in cycles.

Anything created by human beings is already in the great book of nature.

All created forms are fractal, as is their purpose, use, and allotted time for existence.

Part of what you try and do when you're writing is to just transcend politics and the moment in a way and talk about something, those fundamental building blocks of building nature.

Nature is the inspiration for all ornamentation

Creative force, like a musical composer, goes on unweariedly repeating a simple air or theme, now high, now low, in solo, in chorus, ten thousand times reverberated, till it fills earth and heaven with the chant.

We have forgotten to observe. Instead of observing, we do things according to patterns.

Laws of nature don't know they are "fixed." That's a human pattern seeking description that comes out of our need to survive. It isn't an objective description of anything.

The basic laws of the universe are simple, but because our senses are limited, we can’t grasp them. There is a pattern in creation.

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.

Clouds float in the same pattern only once.

Learning to savor the vertigo of doing without answers or making do with fragmentary ones opens up the pleasures of recognizing and playing with patterns, finding coherence within complexity, sharing within multiplicity.

Writing is a conversation with reading; a dialogue with thinking. All conversations with older people contain repetition. Some of the ideas mean a lot to me, just interesting, so I both embrace and attack the ideas because I found them, well, delightful.

The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind - creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers.

There are a lot of very strong connections with music and mathematics. They both can work in patterns and sequences and repetitions.