Sunday, January 12, 2014 *************************************** THOMAS MANN SPEAKS ************************************** Where there is too much talk of love, there will be very little love. Who will dare to disagree with Thomas Mann (who probably wrote more about music than any other major modern writer) when he said: “The past half century has witnessed a regression of humanity, a chilling atrophy of culture, a frightening decrease in civility, decency, sense of justice, loyalty, and faith, and of the most elementary trustworthiness.” # ON MARRIAGE ********************** Even if you marry the most beautiful woman in the world, sooner or later she will stink of garlic. Richard Burton on Elizabeth Taylor in his recently published diary: “She stinks of garlic – who has garlic for breakfast?” He probably stank of booze morning, noon, and night. # AS I SEE IT *********************** There is no such thing as a lovable nation. For every American who loves Armenians there will be at least two or more who love Turks. * I was the most disappointed man on earth when I met my first Turk. He was short, skinny, and timid. No fez. No yataghan. No shalvars. No bloodshot eyes. * When a face in the crowd smiles and says hello, the chances are it’s to the fellow behind you. * Books changed my worldview but music changed my life. I became a church organist. * Where the art of advertisement is developed, the brain will be underdeveloped. * There is an Armenian Christian heresy that believes the world was created not by God but the Devil. The evidence is overwhelming. * A generation of dupes will be followed by another. # FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS ********************************** “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!” “I could have been a contender.” Can you identify the following two? “Gee, I wish we had one of those doomsday machines!” and “The cat is in the bag and the bag is in the river.” # ON COWARDICE ***************************** If you speak in the name of patriotism, do so only in time of peace. Attack only individuals who are in no position to defend themselves. Attack anonymously and from a safe distance. * ON BEING AN ARMENIAN WRITER *************************************** As a failure you will be despised. As a success you will be hated unto death. * TWINS ****************** To be corrupt and incompetent are Siamese. * MEN AND WOMEN **************************** On their own they can be good; it’s when they get together that the excrement hits the ventilator. * YOU WANT TO BE POPULAR? ************************************** Recycle a fashionable propaganda line – like Bolshevik shit under Stalin and Nazi crap under Hitler… * POLITICS ********************* To be in politics means to expose the double-talk of the opposition and to cover your own triple-talk. # CONSPIRACY **************************** Ever since I was born as an Armenian, there has been a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to convince me that being an Armenian is a rare privilege and I should consider myself the luckiest of men. The question that I cannot answer to this day is: Are members of this conspiracy our saviors or our grave-diggers? * If “a man is another man’s wolf,” is not an Armenian another Armenian’s Turk?” #