I was always one of those guys who was a seeker after truth. I want to know what's going on.
"Whom are you?" said he, for he had been to night school.
I love to ask people questions. I want to know everything about them, even things that may be seemingly socially inappropriate.
I think at this point I only write books about questions I really want to figure out. They're indulgences, essentially. I think, 'What would I like to spend five years really thinking about? What could I gain from thinking about for five years?'
Self-knowledge leads to wonder, and wonder to curiosity and investigation, so that nothing interests people more than people, even if only one's own person.
I start asking a lot of questions about my own life, and it's not necessarily fun, but it's a good exercise.
I write to satisfy the story or poem or piece of fascinating research that speaks to me. To rub a sore, to resonate with joy, to answer a question no one else has satisfactorily answered for me.
It is grander to think and investigate for yourself than to repeat a creed.
Inquisitiveness is self-serving, Johanna. -Marcus Eaton
But right now I’m here with you. And I want to know where you are, what you need, and what you want to do.
When all authority of every kind is put aside, denied, then you can find out for yourself.
I'm an essayist. And this is a genre that has existed for a few thousand years. Ever heard of Cicero? So these rules that I'm working under are not mine but rather were established by writers who recognized the difference between the hard research of journalism and the kind of inquiry of mind that characterizes the essay.
So when people ask me if there's another one, I say, "You know, I don't think so, but I don't know, and I kind of don't understand why."
I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security... Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not.
Art maybe the only space where an indvidual can be utterly free to question himself, as well as his relationship to his God
I never think of the reader. I am curious about things; I need to find out, so off I go.
Whenever I meet someone new, I always ask the same question... 'So, what do you do?
And all these questions I ask myself. It is not in a spirit of curiosity. I cannot be silent. About myself I need know nothing. Here all is clear. No, all is not clear. But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities. Rhetoric.
So. How was your week?
My party trick is that I ask everybody questions. I'm just nosey.
You write to please yourself, you write to move yourself, to engage yourself in the asking of questions that are important to you.
I often pose questions to myself and want the answers. The questions may be psychological or emotional. Or they may involve botany or [...] physiology. [...] I am very curious about strangers I observe - as in a bus line. I am very attached to finding out answers.
Does my eye look okay to you?
I guess I could say that I pursue questions that interest me in ways that interest me on the page, but that's awfully vague.
The Work is merely four questions; it's not even a thing. It has no motive, no strings. It's nothing without your answers. These four questions will join any program you've got and enhance it. Any religion you have - they'll enhance it. If you have no religion, they will bring you joy. And they'll burn up anything that isn't true for you. They'll burn through to the reality that has always been waiting.
