Date: December 18, 1979

"The mind is like a parachute. It must be opened in order to work."

— Endicott, William

Date: 1979

" But they can be sent along the usual channels […] until at some critical point, a "mental faucet" is closed, preventing them from actually being carried out."

— Hofstadter, Douglas (b. 1945)

Date: 1981

"What's my head but a rat's nest / of dubious texts?"

— Harwood, Gwen (1920-1995)

Date: 1981

"If one must use metaphorical language, then let the metaphor be this: the mind and the world jointly make up the mind and the world. (Or, to make the metaphor even more Hegelian, the Universe makes up the Universe--with minds--collectively--playing a special role in the making up.)"

— Putnam, Hilary (b. 1926)

Date: March 11, 1982

''The mind is like a parachute -- it only functions when it's open."

— Duncan, Amy

Date: 1984

"His brain was deep-fried. No, he decided, it had been thrown into hot fat and left there, and the fat had cooled, a thick dull grease congealing on wrinkled lobes, shot through with greenish-purple flashes of pain."

— Gibson, William (b. 1948)

Date: 1984

"He still had his anger. That was like being rolled in some alley and waking to discover your wallet still in your pocket, untouched."

— Gibson, William (b. 1948)

Date: 1984

"That whole private mythology, in which I believe totally, is a collaboration between one's conscious mind and those obsessions that, one by one, present themselves as stepping-stones."

— Ballard, J. G. (1930-2009)

Date: 1984

"I suppose people--certainly imaginative writers--who consciously exploit their own obsessions do so in part because those obsessions lie like stepping-stones in front of them, and their feet are drawn towards them."

— Ballard, J. G. (1930-2009)

Date: 1984

"Imagination is the shortest route between any two conceivable points, and more than equal to any physical rearrangement of the brain's functions."

— Ballard, J. G. (1930-2009)