On ghosts, and constructing your own mythology

I keep going down the river to pray.

- Ella Henderson, Ghost

I think last night

you were driving circles around me.

- Kristen Hersh, Your Ghost

I don't want anybody else.

The National, Anyone's Ghost

On loss

"What do you miss most of Old Earth's oceans?"

miss Shark/ miss Shark/ miss Shark/ miss Shark/ Shark/ Shark/ Shark.

- Exchange between Merin and the dolphins,

Dan Simmons, Hyperion

Girls like guys are the the best

Quinn to Deb:
"There aren't many women like you, I know that. You're more like... a guy."
"A guy?"
 "You don't play games where I have to figure out what you're thinking. You just say it. Usually with a lot of really filthy words I've never heard before."

- Dexter, Hop A Freighter

What can I do?

We must have been stone crazy
when we thought we were just friends
'Cause I miss you, baby
and I've got those feelings again
I guess I'm all confused about you
I feel so in love, oh baby, what can I do?

 - London Beat, I've Been Thinking About You

On words that could have been said

Maybe this won't work out, but I want to try.

- http://xkcd.com/1454/

Don't you ever ponder, on words we could have said?

- Slow Club, Because We're Dead

Oh, Stephin...

Because I am a gentleman
Think of me as just your fan
Who remembers every dress you ever wore
Just the bad comedian
Your new boyfriend's better than
'Cause I don't really love you anymore

- The Magnetic Fields, I Don't Really Love You Anymore

On temptation

I can't conceal
The way I'm healed
The pleasure I feel
When I have to deal
With the mercy in you

I would do it all again
Lose my way and fall again
Just so I could call again
On the mercy in you

- Depeche Mode, Mercy In You

How

How'd you like yourself
you don't know yourself

- Tricky, Pumpkin

Don't be afraid of what you are

there are many things to be afraid of
like ghosts
and death
and climbing too high
there are many things to be afraid of
but don't be afraid of
the dark

- Low, Dark

On desire

His desire was as deep and boundless as the sea, but when the tide receded, the rocks of shame and guilt thrust up as sharp as ever.

- George R. R. Martin, A Feast For Crows

Nothing but regrets

I knew I'd made a horrible call

- Death Cab For Cutie, Crooked Teeth

On drinking

Now show some pity, for the weak of will
Because when we're drinking, we can never be filled

- Swans, Blind

You're here in my head

You're like my yo-yo
That glowed in the dark
What made it special
Made it dangerous
So I bury it
And forget

But every time it rains
You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out

- Kate Bush, Cloudbursting

For your journey

Time has come to let go
Pack your bags - hit the open road
Our hearts just won’t die
It’s the trip
Keeps us alive
So many miles
Away

- Still Corners, The Trip

How soon is now?

In spite of all the love inside me
There is a question I've been asking
Heaven
How long?

- East India Youth, Heaven, How Long

Girls

Oh you girls, you drive me crazy.

- Au Revoir Simone, Crazy

The future

A forehead barred with those parallel wrinkles that are the penalty of superciliousness, since they come through constantly elevating the eyebrows.

- G.K. Chesterton, The Secret Garden

It's a drug life

I'm waiting for the time,
When I can be without,
These things that make me feel,
This way all of the time .

- Spiritualized, Medication

On deep fears

I can be hard to live with. I don’t mean to be, but I can be critical. Sometimes I think I’m just not good for people. It’s… not good for them to be around me. I wear them down. They get unhappy.

Rustin Cohle, True Detective "Seeing Things"

You don't have to be afraid, love

You don't have to be afraid, love
cos I'm a safesurfer, darlin'

- Julian Cope, Safesurfer

Struggling

It wasn't like a rain it was more like a sea
I didn't ask for this pain it just came over me

- The National, Pink Rabbits

Me and my truelove

You're just the same as I am
What makes most people feel happy
Leads us headlong into harm

- The Smiths, Paint A Vulgar Picture

On nightmares

I gotta get too drunk to dream
cos I only dream of you
I gotta get too pissed to miss you
or I'll never get to sleep

- The Magnetic Fields, Too Drunk To Dream

Dragged down by strange attractors

I must say I was smitten so long ago
I got caught, pulled right down by your undertow
Just like the stars always shine
Just like them, you can't be mine...

- Puressence, You Move Me

How could I forget? Although somedays I wish I could.

Do you remember how we started out?

- Teleman, 23 Floors Up

On going down

So I go
I fathom leagues
I am the undertow
I wait peacefully

- TV On The Radio, Satellite

On old flames

And nothing fuels a good flirtation,
Like need and anger and desperation.

- Aimee Mann, The Moth

How girls should smell

Pebbles - salt & dirt. A good smell.

- Anonymous, discussing Like A Motorway

A lonely land

never hoped to understand
love is a barren land
a lonely land
a lonely land

- Cory & Cross, Deep Song 

(performed by Billie Holiday / Babes In Toyland)

On growing older

My body is a broken TV
Endlessly playing the flickering picture
Of the boy I used to be

- The Wave Pictures, Better To Be Loved

Closer to me, not closer to you (or so I thought)

And I held you closer
than anyone would ever get

- Death Cab For Cutie, We Looked Like Giants

On the futility of art

It's not worth it. There are giants out there. We do not matter. Someone can step on us without noticing. There is no point in making pretty picture. It's all been done, anyway. We are ants. The only thing that matters is looking after each other.

- Hannu Rajaniemi, The Quantum Thief

On drinking

Isaac loves the crude sensation of alcohol buzzing in his brain: so much better than sophisticated drugware. The increasingly small part of his mind recognises it as a meme rather than a physical thing: thousand years of a culture of intoxication, worship of Bacchus built into his Oubliette-made body.

- Hannu Rajaniemi, The Quantum Thief

Damn

I've got one thing to say
Before I am drunk again
God damn the sun
God damn anyone
That says a kind word
God damn the sun
God damn the light it shines
And this world it shows
God damn the sun

- Swans, God Damn The Sun

On excitement

If this is the stuff dreams are made of
No wonder I feel like I'm floating on air 

- The Chameleons, Second Skin

True

It's true
you're lazy

- Luna, Lost In Space

Am I, still?

And if you must go to work, tomorrow
Well if I were you, I wouldn't bother
For there are brighter sides to life
And I should know - because I've seen them
But not very often.

- The Smiths, Still Ill

All I want to do

Well I know five years is a long time
And that times change
But I think that you will find
People are basically the same

Though I think I still love you
All I want to do is see you
Don't you know that it's true?

- Depeche Mode, See You

On the importance of sleep

Upon awakening from dreamless sleep, we have the peculiar impression that for a while we were not there at all nor, as far as we are concerned, was the rest of the world. This everyday observation tells us vividly that consciousness can come and go, grow and shrink. Indeed, if we did not sleep, it might be hard to imagine that consciousness is not a given, but depends somehow on the way our brain is functioning.

- Giulio Tononi, An information integration theory of consciousness