David Shields

I want the reader to join me on an intellectual and emotional journey into some major aspect of existence. ”

I'm trying to use myself and my own flawedness as a metaphor for general human experience. I'm trying to 'stand next to' a subject, whether it's Bobby Knight or Vince Carter, and use that subject to meditate on both him and me. ”

I don't know what's the matter with me, why I'm so adept at distance, why I feel so remote from things, why life feels like a rumor. ”

I argued strongly to the American publisher that 'Reality Hunger' should come out first. They thought that 'The Thing About Life' would have more appeal because it's on a broader topic; it's about mortality rather than art. ”

Honesty is the best policy; the only way out is deeper in: a candid confrontation with existence is dizzying, liberating. ”

The movie - any sports movie - becomes a praise song to life here on earth, to physical existence itself, beyond striving, beyond economic necessity. ”

New artists, it seems to me, have to learn the mechanics of computing/programming and - possessing a vision unhumbled by technology - use them to disassemble/recreate the Web. ”

The only requirement of a fan or a patient is the surrender to authority. ”

When you're in New York City or Boston or something, you feel surrounded by cities and by culture. ”

I think of sports writers as mediating between two worlds. Athletes probably think of sports writers as not macho enough. And people in high culture probably think of sports writers as jocks or something. They are in an interestingly complex position in which they have to mediate the world of body and the world of words. ”