This pain is comfort. It is the solace of physicality, like a touch.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Comfort Feelings Pain Self Harm Suicide Touch

Doing nothing was as honourable as any available course of action. Think of Hamlet, think of Job, think of Jesus before Pilate.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Acting Bravery Courage Fear Hamlet Honour Inaction Intentionality Jesus Job Pilate

Like all fiction, my lies are just my efforts to be truer than the truth.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Fiction Lies Reality Truth

The characters act for reasons that they can’t control and, as readers, we have to believe in their motivations, their sense of choice and in the reality of their suffering, even though, deep down, we know it’s all just puppetry on the part of the writer.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Characters Choice Fiction Literature Motivation Novel Puppetry Readers Readers And Writers Reality Suffering Writers On Writing

I stare out at the real world projected on the windows

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Forms Plato S Form Projections Reality Sense Data Senses Shadows Veil Of Perception Windows

His suffering was no more real than he was.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Fiction Vs Reality Fictional Character Reality Suffering

Reality, it seems, is not a flat plane, but has as many veils as an onion has skins.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Onion Perception Real Reality Veil

For someone to be perfect, they must be real, however imperfect they are.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Anselm Love Ontological Proof Perfect Perfection Real Reality

It is a matter of mere coincidence that there is often a real individual who corresponds with a celebrity, signifies them.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Celeb Celebrity Fame Reality Signification Signify

You need to bridge the gap between reality and freedom. Drugs are the bridge.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Drugs Freedom Reality

I feel underslept but overjoyed. Nothing feels so good as this.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Bliss First Love Happiness Joy Overjoyed Tired Tired But Happy

Is the writer cruel that makes his characters suffer only to bring them to triumph or tragedy in the end?

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Characters Cruelty Fiction Fictional Characters Tragedy Triumph Writers Writing

I know everything must be a lie, but I believe it anyway.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Belief Faith Fiction Lies Truth

Is it murder to kill a man if the man never existed? To the man it is.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Cruelty Existence Existentialism Fiction Murder Novels

Stories are just lies made to look like truth.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Fiction Lies Stories Truth

Job understood that he was nothing more than God’s invention and so too was his suffering

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Book Of Job Fiction Fiction Vs Reality God S Creation Job Suffering

Suffering is inevitable. It is part of the human condition. It is written in the human script.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Destiny Fate Human Condition Human Script Inevitability Inevitable Suffering

I may not be free, but I’m not about to surrender the illusion of choice.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Choice Choices Destiny Fate Free Free Will Freedom Predestination Predestiny Predetermination Predetermined Surrender

The future is certain. It is just not known.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Certain Certainty Destiny Determinism Fatalism Fate Future Inevitability Knowable Predeterminism Predictability Probability Uncertainty

An unpublished writer should doubt themselves. They should constantly wonder whether what they’re creating has merit. And then, having doubted, they should take up their pen and see if they can’t make it better.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Creativity Determination Doubt Hard Improvement Learning Learning From Mistakes Merit Persistence Quality Resilience Unpublished Unpublished Fiction Work Writers Writing

All life is preoccupied with death. Death is the only certain future. Yet in the face of reason, everyone holds out hope for the highly improbable.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Certain Certainty Death Future Hope Improbable Life

Because he believed in himself, he believed what he did was important. Or maybe it was the other way around.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Belief Importance Self Belief Self Believing

Publishers are businesses and I don’t blame them for that. If they didn’t make money by publishing books, there wouldn’t be any books.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Art Books Business Literature Publisher Publishers Publishing

A good book is not the same as a successful one.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Books Literature Novels Publishing Quality Success Writing

A novel must be judged on its merits, not on how hard the journey was to write it.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Books Hard Journey Judgement Literature Merit Novels Quality Writing

Who can say they saw a whole play or read a whole book? Each has their own experience, their own play, their own book

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Authorship Literature Readers Readers And Writers Relativism

Grief denied will surface in borrowed clothes, the mad, sad clothes of paranoia, fear or loneliness

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Depression Fear Grief Loneliness Loss Paranoia Repression Sadness

In the chain of events, it is arbitrary to be sentimental about the passing of any one link.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Arbitrary Causality Chain Of Events Grief Grieving Links Mourning Nihilism Sentiment Sentimental

Time passes. I drift in and out. As if I cease to be, until I remember to exist again.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Existence Memory Sleep Time

I’m a bit-part actor in my own life

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Actor Character Control Intentionality Life Self Self Awareness Self Esteem

To reread a book is to read a different book. The reader is different. The meaning is different.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Books Meaning Reader Readers Reading Rereading

Inhumanity is part of humanity as much as suffering is a part of stories. Cruelty is written in the human script.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Cruelty Fiction Vs Reality Human Script Humanity And Reality Inhumanity Stories Suffering

He thought of hanging himself, to pass the time.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Beckett Boredom Ennui Godot Hanging Samuel Beckett Suicide

To be mad is worse than not to be if this is what it is.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Madness Suicidal Thoughts Suicide To Be Or Not To Be

I don’t see big subjects as separate from little ones. Yes, you could trudge through life with great human tragedies played out before your eyes without ever taking notice. Or you could see a universe in the smallest thing. The way a person takes their coffee, for example, might say something profound and important about that person, about all humanity, about existence itself.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Existence Grain Of Sand Humanity Profound Truth Small Things Universe Writers Writers On Thinking Writers On Writing

To be motivated to write a novel, I need to be unable not to write.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Motivation Novel Writing Novelists Novels Writer Writers Writers Block Writers On Writing

Good writing is more about graft and craft than inspiration and aspiration.

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Aspiration Craft Graft Hard Work Inspiration Writers Writers On Writing Writing

He did it because he could not help himself, which explains everything and nothing

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Determinism Explain Explanation Fate Why

The bacteria of resentment bred: distance turned to distrust; distrust turned to bitterness; bitterness to hate, which is, after all, a kind of grievous love

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Bitterness Distrust Hate Love Resentment

Is cruelty still cruel if it is necessary? Is cruelty still cruel if it is part of a lie?

~ Johnny Rich

Johnny Rich Cruelty Lies Necessity
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