James Frey Quotations

United HealthCare does not and will not raise premium costs to cover the cost of business transactions, ... Premiums in California will only reflect the cost of health care and will not go up as a result of this transaction.

With this merger, PacifiCare members will have the benefit of this technology years ahead of when we would have had it were to remain,

This program provides critical resources to new parents experiencing not only the joys but also the challenges of a new baby.

So let the haters hate, let the doubters doubt, I stand by my book, and my life, and I won't dignify this bullshit with any sort of further response.

I don't care what level you're on. To go from being the star to being the eighth, ninth man on the team, it's very humbling. But he's handled it very well. He's a very humble young man.

I embellished many details about my past experiences, and altered others in order to serve what I felt was the greater purpose of the book.

I don't think it is a novel. I still think it's a memoir.

He fabricated an evaluation report. He fabricated the evaluation report from us, using the logo from an envelope. We have no idea where he got our envelope because we had no record of ever having any contact with him.

He's got a very good offensive game. He can make plays.

I think writing a book about this experience would be trying to capitalize on it in some way and that's not something I want to do at all.

My mistake, and it is one I deeply regret, is writing about the person I created in my mind to help me cope, and not the person who went through the experience.

It finally validated, in his mind, that he had a story to be told.

I think most of what they wrote was pretty accurate, absolutely.

I think I made a lot of mistakes in writing the book and promoting the book.

When one lives without fear, one cannot be broken.

Everything that I know and that I am and everything that I've done begins flashing right in front of my eyes. My past, my present, my future. My friends, my enemies, my friends who became enemies. Where I've lived, where I've been, what I've seen, what I've done. What I've ruined, what I've destroyed.

Everyone's memory is subjective. If in three weeks we were both interviewed about what went on here tonight, we would both probably have very, very different stories.

As strong as our father was, it really broke his heart when she died. I believe it was pretty cathartic to help him get through his loss.

Dr. Wilburn's extensive international experience should prove extremely valuable to Electronic Sensor Technology, as we continue to expand aggressively into Asia. With recent significant orders from Europe and Asia, we believe that Dr. Wilburn will play an integral role in helping the Company determine which international markets are the most attractive for the zNose(R), which is capable of capturing and analyzing nearly any odor, fragrance, or chemical vapor within ten seconds.

I've never had any interest at all in being a journalist or writing some sort of historically accurate autobiography.

Sometimes skulls are thick.Sometimes hearts are vacant.Sometimes words don't work.

You've never been in love?Not even close.And no ones ever in love with you?Men always want to f**k me, but no one has ever loved me.I don't Believe that.It's True.I stare back.If it makes a difference, I' dont want to f*ck you.She laughs.Thanks.I think you're beautiful, but I wouldn't f*ck you because when we were done, i wouldnt want you to feel f*cked. I would try to make love to you, and I would probably be clumsy and awkward, but when it was over, I would want you to feel loved.She smiles.Thank you, James.I smile. Thank you,Lilly.

You've never been in love? Not even close. And no ones ever in love with you? Men always want to f**k me, but no one has ever loved me. I don't Believe that. It's True. I stare back. If it makes a difference, I' dont want to f*ck you. She laughs. Thanks. I think you're beautiful, but I wouldn't f*ck you because when we were done, i wouldnt want you to feel f*cked. I would try to make love to you, and I would probably be clumsy and awkward, but when it was over, I would want you to feel loved. She smiles. Thank you, James. I smile. Thank you,Lilly.

The book is about drug addiction and alcoholism.

It's critical for children with sickle cell disease to have this test. Stroke is devastating, particularly when it impairs the quality of life for someone at such an early age.

I was a bad guy. If I was gonna write a book that was true, and I was gonna write a book that was honest, then I was gonna have to write about myself in very, very negative ways.

I am aware that the battle I am fighting is a petty one, but I am also aware that in order to win that which is great, you must first win that which is small.

I hadn't learned yet that everybody's locked up some way or other. That's how life is we're all imprisoned by something.

The past doesn't matter. People cling to it because it allows them to ignore the present.

...if you can accept the truth and live with it your heart will be at peace.

We did what our people do all the time, we told ourselves something we did was right and we found a way to justify it, even though we knew it was wrong.

There are never words for the strongest of our feelings. There is just the pain that we cannot share. Pain we must all feel alone.

There is, though, nothing that prepares us for the worst things in our life. There is nothing you can do to stop the shock, or buffer the pain.

I say to myself if you believe deeply in your heart you must defy, and if you are willing to pay for your defiance, you must always do it, even though the pain may be much. Too many times in our lives we do not do it, and we pay even more...

For the worst things of our lives, it is sometimes the best way, to never speak of them again.

Trauma is survivable, but often not much more. It kills you while allowing you to still live.

My life has been like all the lives, long and hard and full of sadness and confusion and horror, a frightening, difficult dream punctuated by brief moments of joy. And as is the case with all people's lives, the moments of joy are never often enough and never long enough.

In life we often look to others for simple, but difficult answers, despite the fact that we have those answers ourselves.

But that's part of faith. Believing and knowing despite what other people say, and despite what the world might think of your beliefs.

For the most profound experiences in our lives and in the world words are worth nothing. Can you describe love Or death Can you describe what it really feels like the first time you see your child Or the first time your heart gets broken You can try...but it won't come close to describing what it really was or what it really felt like.

Faith is the fool's excuse.

A miracle is changing someone's life. Freeing them from whatever bonds them. Giving them the gift of being able to live the way they dream of living.

I, however, like black. It is a color that makes me comfortable and the color with which I have the most experience. In the darkest darkness, all is black. In the deepest hole, all is black. In the terror of my Addicted mind, all is black. In the empty periods of my lost memory, all is black. I like black, goddammit, and I am going to give it its due.

This moment and this chance, they are the same, and they are mine if I choose them,and I do. I want them. Now and as long as I can have them they are both precious and fleeting and gone in the blink of an eye, don't waste them. A moment and an opportunity and a life, all in the unseen tick of a clock holding me nowhere. My heart is beating. The walls are pale and quiet. I am surviving.

The one word love means too little for what it is. It doesn't communicate even a fraction of the feelings involved. Love. The word is not enough for what it is. Love. Love.

I regretted making a comment about Dave Eggers. I've never said anything about McSweeneys except that I admire what it is, and I think it's great that they keep people interested in literature.

I have lived alone, I have fought alone, I have dealt with the pain alone. I will die alone. I think when I'm going to leave. I don’t want to be seen and I don’t want to be followed , I want to disappear quickly and quietly and without any drama , I want as much time in the darkness as I can possibly have . The darkness provides cover, the darkness provides places to hide and the darkness provides comfort.

What is the meaning of life?Whatever you want it to be.

It started when she passed me a note in English class. The note said you don't seem as awful as I hear you are. I passed one back that read: beware I am as awful as people say and worse. She laughed and I had a friend. She didn't become my Ally and I didn't ask her to or want her to but she became my friend and that was more than anyone else was willing to do.

The best stories are universal stories that have been told for as long as humanity has existed it's just figuring out new ways to do it, with language, with structure. And so I'm always trying to do that.

And even though people try to pretend that pain doesn't do anything to them, none of us can really handle it. Everything bad we do in our life is because of pain of some kind.

Life, not death, is the great mystery you must confront.

The promise of eternal life makes people forsake the life they're given.

And loss of control is always the source of fear. It is also, however, always the source of change.

...we got this gift of life and we got it one time and we gonna get hurt in it and be hurt going through it and the only thing that'll make that hurt better or hurt less is love.

The feeling of arms around me, of love in my heart, it was more powerful than any of the negativity I knew was existing in the world for me. That feeling of love killed it all.

But love is different for every person. For some it's hate, for some it's joy, for some it's fear, for some it's jealousy, for some it's torture, for some it's peace. For some it's everything.

That's what ever great writer, I believe, has done over the course of time - is they've figured out new ways of telling the same stories.

I go to my Room and I drink and I smoke some cigarettes and I think about her. I drink and I smoke and I think about her and at a certain point blackness comes and my memory fails me.

They had dreams but they called them dreams because they were unrelated to reality, they were a distant unknown, an impossibility, they would never come true.

I meet a third man he's an old man he trips in the street he falls and I help him up, walk him to the curb. He shakes my hand says keep the faith, young man. I ask him what he means, he says keep running and don't let them catch you.

Pain is the feeling. Suffering is the effect the pain inflicts. If one can endure pain, one can live without suffering. If one can withstand pain, one can withstand anything. If one can learn to control pain, one can learn to control oneself.

You don't have to follow anybody's rules.

I turn and I slowly walk away and I don't look back. It has always been a fault of mine, but it is the way I am. I never look back. Never.

Sleep is still difficult I sleep for three or four hours a day. Usually sometime in the afternoon. I walk in the cold, keep myself numb. I cry less, and less." (James Frey, pg.88)

I look at pastries and cakes, tarts and pies. My body craves sugar, always craves sugar. Years of alcohalism and the high level of sugar in alcohal created the craving, which I feed with candy and soda.

You don't have to follow anybody's conventions.

I sleep during the day. I still dream about drinking and drugs. Sometimes I wake to a hang-over, sometimes I wake to a trickle of blood from my nose, sometimes I wake scared and shaking. I read, go to museums and visit Lilly in the afternoon. Sometimes I read to her, sometimes I talk to her, sometimes I just sit and remember the times, remember the times, remember the times." (James Frey, pg.119)

On my first day in jail, a three hundred pound man named Porterhouse hit me in the back of the head with a metal tray. I was standing in line for lunch and I didn't see it coming. I went down. When I got up, I turned around and started throwing punches." (James Frey, pg.1)

On the other couch a women sits with a young boy looking through a picture book about Babar the Elephant. When I find a magazine and I lean back to start reading it, I can see the women watching me out of the corner of her eye. She moves closer to the child and she leans over and kisses his forehead. I know why she does it and i don't blame her.

I'm trying to influence the next generation or two generations or three generations behind me. That's a big ambition of mine.

He tells me I look as if I could use a hugand i laugh at him and he ignores me and steps forward and puts his arms around me and hugs me. I warm at the simple pleasure of human contact and for the first time in a long time i actually feel good." (James Frey, pg.38)

There is no fear. Absolutely no fear. When one lives without fear, one cannot be broken. When one lives with fear one is broken before one begins to live.

Every year, at 8:00 PM on the second Saturday of July, hundreds of people gather along a section of Los Angeles rail track to drop their pants and moon passing passenger trains.

I try to write books that are different from the books I've already written. I think one of the thing I really try to do is reinvent how a novel can be written.

A contest was held in 1994 to rename the Los Angeles Convention and Exhibition Center after an extensive renovation and expansion. The winning name, chosen from over ten thousand entries, was the Los Angeles Convention Center.

You only live once, buy Picassos whenever possible.

When I see you, the World stops. It stops and all that exists for me is you and my eyes staring at you. There's nothing else. No noise, no other people, no thoughts or worries, no yesterday, no tomorrow. The World just stops, and it is a beautiful place, and there is only you.

More than anything, all I have ever wanted is to be close to someone. More than anything, all I have ever wanted is to feel as if i wasn't alone.

Laughing and Love. They are both drugs.

This Girl with nothing but her own strength and a desire to be free. With nothing but a beating heart that is scared to be alone. With nothing but clear blue eyes that see through me and understand me. With nothing but open arms ready to receive me. To stand by me. To walk with me. To love me. I love her. Lilly. The Girl with nothing and everything. Lilly. I love her. A tear appears. She smiles. She leans forward kisses my lips softly kisses me and as our lips touch barely touch she whispers. I love you too, James. Our lips barely touching she whispers. I love you. Whispers. I love you.

She is sitting on frozen ground wrapped in a blanket, her pale skin shining. She smiles and she stands and without words, she steps forward, opens the blanket, envelops me within it and within her and within myself. She kisses my cheek, the one not torn, she wraps me and she holds me. Her arms are thin but strong. She whispers in my ear, "I'm glad you're here.

People call me all sorts of things. I don't even care what they call me.

Be patient and wait. Your mud will settle. Your water will be clear.

Addicts, as a group, generally score far above average o intelligence tests. Why? You tell me. I guess maybe we're smart enough to have figured out how shitty things are and we decide addiction is the only way to deal with it.

In my mind my obituary is done.It is done and it is right. It tells the truth and as awful as it can be, the truth is what matters. It is what I should be remembered by, if I'm remembered at all. Remember the truth. that is all that matters

It's cold and it's winter and the world has gone to sleep

The way America works, and the way L.A. works, is a very small percentage of people get what they want out of life, and a much greater percentage try very very hard and they don't. That's just the way it is.

I think of how and why and what happened and the thoughts come easily, but the answers don't.

I stand, walk over to him, sit down on his bed, put my arms around him, hug him. He hugs me back strong and I can feel the shame coming through his arms. I am a Criminal and he is a Judge and I am white and he is black, but at this moment none of that matters. He is a man who needs a friends and I can be his friend.

Even a second of freedom is worth more than a lifetime of bondage.

I just think it's a great world to tell stories in, to tell cool stories: money, sex, fame, and scandal. Those are great subject matters to work with.

The Young Man came to the Old Man seeking counsel. I broke something, Old Man. How badly is it broken? It's in a million little pieces. I'm afraid I can't help you. Why? There's nothing you can do. Why? It can't be fixed. Why? It's broken beyond repair. It's in a million little pieces.

Everything I know and I am and I have seen felt done past present past now then before now seen felt done hurt felt focus into a something beyond words beyond beyond beyond and it speaks now and it says. Stay. Fight. Live. Take it.

I always wanted to be the outlaw. And that's to a certain extent how I've lived.

I don't care what people come at me with. People have come at me with everything you could imagine. I could care less about that.

There are places from which you cannot return. There is damage that can be irreparable.

I listen to the tick of an unseen clock marking moments of time long passed...

I don't want to walk in the middle. I want people to read what I write and feel strongly about it. If, at some point, whatever I am doing is failing to elicit a response, whether it's very positive or very negative, then I am going to stop doing it.

What someone calls my books is irrelevant to me. I consider them works of art and rules and categories and labels mean nothing.