There was nothing interesting about Gary, or rather an index of his blankness was that the most interesting thing about him was that he was lactose intolerant.

Specifically, researchers asked this question over a series of 11 studies: “To what extent do you agree with this statement: I am a narcissist.’” The participants — and there were about 2,200 of them in total — were told to answer on a scale of one to seven. As it turned out, their self-scoring results closely matched scores on the traditional method of gauging narcissism, a 40-question survey called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory.

On taking the role, Saldana said, “I was just excited to be asked to join by James Gunn and to also play someone green. I’ve been blue before [in Avatar].”

Once, when asked by an interviewer if he had ever smoked crack, Vollmann memorably responded, “I guess that I would say that I have.”

There is more to heaven and earth, I should hope, than what is known by a pair of Berkeley sociologists.

He first told me that he wanted to be a corporate lawyer when we were about 13. Not a criminal litigator, mind you, but a corporate lawyer. He already knew! What was this but Socratic self-reflection of the highest order? 

Director Jerry Rees described the main message is the film asks is: “what would it be like to be an appliance, and feel good when you’re useful, and help people…”?

At two a.m. I awoke, my mind on fire with the question of lions.

If nihilism is necessarily true, then gunk is impossible. But, as Sider argues, because gunk is both conceivable and possible, nihilism is false, or at best a contingent truth.

If a mosquito has a soul, it is mostly evil.