Date: 2009, trans. 2012

"But with the flame of alcohol burning in my brain I took no notice of the atmosphere that otherwise would have affected me, for although I wasn't outright happy, I was elated, exhilarated, motivated by the desire to continue this, which not even a direct reminder of Dad's death could shake, it w...

— Knausgaard, Karl Ove (b. 1968)

Date: 2009, trans. 2012

"But I didn't want to linger, nor could I perhaps, for the sensation lasted only a few moments, then my brain sank its claws into it and I went back to the kitchen where everything was as I had left it, except for the color of the drinks, which were shiny and full of small, grayish bubbles now."

— Knausgaard, Karl Ove (b. 1968)

Date: 2009, trans. 2012

"'Unraveling' was our family euphemism for senility."

— Knausgaard, Karl Ove (b. 1968)

Date: January 2010

"The man's suit, his hair, the sky through the window, and the rows of figures sliding across the abacus of his mind—these too are gray, though each gray is of a different value."

— Schwartz, Mattathias

Date: January 2010

"Only one mind remained independent, humming along on its own steam."

— Schwartz, Mattathias

Date: May 27, 2010

"When you direct your mental spotlight to the basketball passes, it leaves the rest of the world in darkness."

— Bloom, Paul (b. 1963)

Date: May 27, 2010

"But we tend to think that memory is objectively truthful, on analogy with a digital recording."

— Bloom, Paul (b. 1963)

Date: May 17, 2010

"But Ashbery often writes from the position of the slackened mind, billowing with whatever passes through it; Armantrout generally writes in tautened distress, even when she's being funny."

— Chiasson, Dan

Date: May 17, 2010

"It's the mind as problem-solving device, almost as calculator, though it is, of course, most drawn to problems that cannot be solved."

— Chiasson, Dan

Date: June 1, 2010

"Books live in the mind like honey inside a beehive.

— McGrath, Campbell (b. 1962)