Daniel Coffeen

Please do not misunderstand me.

We speak indirectly, always and necessarily, our words at some angle to our sentiment, action, desire, will — even to our needs!

The cards are stacked against us, at every turn, in so many insidious ways. 

What a painful, ugly, exquisite gift!

When all goes smoothly, it bodes well for the day.

To be selfish is to participate in the world as yourself, as this piece of the universe happening as it happens

It’s a matter of posture, a mode of standing in the world, towards the world, towards your self: a question of what you seek, I suppose, even if what you seek is the end of seeking.

I think about things. It’s my first instinct when I approach anything.

Cuticles, cheese, and Chihuahuas: these are the things that have made my spawn and me shake with mortal fear, keeping us up nights sweating.

To be magnanimous is to honor the other’s state of being.

Habit, in fact, comes from the Latin word meaning dress and then, in the Middle Ages, came to mean the dress worn by the religious.

For a full decade, tequila lifted my spirits, proffered the sunshine to my tortured, weighty soul.

All things — all texts — are to be read. And, in fact, all things are always already read.

A good reading is life affirming. I’ll one up that: a critical reading creates life! It takes what you think you’re seeing, what you think is done, and shows you whole other worlds.

Metonymy is not synecdoche.

I had a female friend who would always disparage young women who dated older guys (of course, said disparagement was aimed not very subtly at me).

We are always entering a world in progress.

Language is weird. It’s a kind of system that includes all these different elements — words, punctuation, meanings — and the way the elements combine, that is, grammar.