“
You're gonna miss each and every shot you can't be bothered to take. That's not living life--that's just being a tourist. Take every shot, Kate. If it's worth caring about, no matter how impossible you think it is--you take the shot.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon)
“
You asked about the Avengers. Y’wanna know the best part about being an Avenger? Having Captain America around you all the time. He just—the guy just brings out the absolute best in people. You want to be good when he’s around. You really do.
Ivan, look around you real quick. Because right now? Captain America ain’t here.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye #1)
“
That's how I survived. Time and time again. That's my secret. I survived because I willed it to be. ... How did I survive apocalyptic fire? I simply refused to feel the flames.
”
”
Matt Fraction
“
Boomerang arrow, Kate -- It comes back to you in the end. Boomerang. Respect it.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon)
“
Today sucks. I’m goin’ back to bed.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye #9)
“
Okay… This looks bad.
You cowboy around with the Avengers some. Guys got, what, armor. Magic. Super-powers. Super-strength. Shrink-dust. Grow-rays. Magic. Healing factors. I’m an orphan raised by carnies fighting with a stick and a string from the Paleolithic era.
So when I say this looks “bad”?
I promise you it feels worse.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye #1)
“
I know it’s a mess and it’s half-taped together and it’s old and busted– but it’s mine. And you gotta make that work, right? You gotta make your own stuff work out.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Volume 2: Little Hits)
“
Nay, father.
Some of us have been killing giants today and aren't in the mood to have a tea party.
- Thor, God of Thunder
”
”
Matt Fraction (Thor: Ages of Thunder)
“
This guy.
This fucking guy.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick)
“
Some days it just feels like I'm here for the shoes and the eternal hope that I shall be issued minions.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Uncanny X-Men: Lovelorn)
“
You're into what you're into, I'm into what I'm into. We don't have to be into the same shit, and if you're safe, sane, and happy, then go on and get you some.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 3: Three the Hard Way)
“
Having shot Stilt Man in the taint with a bazooka -- I've come to realize every character is somebodys favorite character.
”
”
Matt Fraction
“
I reject passive consumption. I reject the premise. I will have no passive consumers. Casanova will not stop and explain itself to you. It will not allow you to flip through it while you're dropping a deuce and waiting for Batman to show up.
”
”
Matt Fraction
“
I…God, I don’t even know where to start. I’m here. I’m here for you, okay? No matter what. You can scream and you can yell and be as mean and self-destructive as you want. Because I know you’re going to be here for me when it’s my turn to fall apart. Let them all come, Clint. Let every last one of those tracksuit-wearing sub-verbal bullying murderous scumbags come at us. Because you and me? Together? Together, Clint, I think you and me are the person we both wish we could be. And I know that person…I know that person is worth something. I know that person can…can pretty much do anything.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye #13)
“
Suddenly it made me realize why religion was such a big thing around here. Because, yes, sure, God could not exist. But then neither could humans. So if they believed in themselves--the logic must go-- why not believe in something that was only a fraction more unlikely?
”
”
Matt Haig (The Humans)
“
I am telling you now: I might be young, but I am good. I work hard, and I'm a good person. I know what's right. I know what's wrong. And if you give me this chance-- if you just give me one shot to show you how good I can be, how hard I work, how much I believe in doing the right thing -- I won't let you down. I promise.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Volume 3: L.A. Woman)
“
Sex is just a word. Love is a sentence
”
”
Matt Fraction
“
Who the hell let you animals into my office?
I'll have you know I was playing a VERY unimportant game of chess right now with a man that kept saying "King me.
”
”
Matt Fraction (The Invincible Iron Man, Volume 9: Demon)
Matt Fraction (Punisher War Journal, Vol. 2: Goin' Out West)
“
Just looking at people made me care about them more. I fell in love with everything and everyone a little bit. They were all beautiful in some way. I just had to wait and watch and I'd catch it at the right time.
”
”
Matt Fraction
“
Because of this.
Because your funny.
Because you know Lolita.
And Nabukov and James Mason too.
Because you're cute and funny and i'm kind of sad and you haven't tried hitting on me once.
Because you weren't even trying...
”
”
Matt Fraction
“
For the next life, screw everybody. Oh who am I fooling? I don't want a next life. I just want a nap.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon)
“
I'm great at boats!
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon)
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon)
“
He played Sarah McLachlan. For the rest of my life whenever I'd get a latte or see a sick dog, I'd think about my hymen.
”
”
Matt Fraction
“
I’m an orphan raised by carnies fighting with a stick and a string from the Paleolithic era.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye Vol. 1)
“
This is death during wartime and it is capricious as shit.
”
”
Matt Fraction (ODY-C, Vol. 1: Off to Far Ithicaa)
“
Therefore, mathematically...there was no chance at all that [she] could have existed. A zero in ten-to-the-power-of-forever chance. And yet there she was, in front of me, and I was quite taken aback by it all; I really was. Suddenly it made me realise why religion was such a big thing around here. Because, yes, sure, God could not exist. But then neither could humans. So, if they believed in themselves - the logic must go - why not believe in something that was only a fraction more unlikely?
”
”
Matt Haig (The Humans)
“
She was reasonable and rational, even through the tears. I hurt her. I know I hurt her. All I felt was anger. I wanted to yell and break stuff. Be demonstrative. Because she was being... she was so adult. And I just felt like a stupid kid. I didn't want to be in our empty place so I did what I do, I went to the movies. I wanted a big dark room to cry in.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 2: Two Worlds, One Cop)
“
Behold now the erotic demon that lives in my panties.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 3: Three the Hard Way)
“
You've invaded my erotic dojo. For this your assholes will adorn my thunderous cock like jewelry!
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 3: Three the Hard Way)
“
Let my tale be a warning. Sure as blood shall be all our undoing, it is stories that set us all free. The stories are all that matter.
”
”
Matt Fraction (ODY-C: Cycle One)
“
This isn’t hyperbole, not exactly. Kurume treats tonkotsu like a French country baker treats a sourdough starter—feeding it, regenerating, keeping some small fraction of the original soup alive in perpetuity. Old bones out, new bones in, but the base never changes. The mother of all ramen.
”
”
Matt Goulding (Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture)
“
Want,’ she told her, in a measured tone, ‘is an interesting word. It means lack. Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely. Maybe you have a lack problem rather than a want problem. Maybe there is a life that you really want to live.’ ‘I thought that was it. The one with Dan. But it wasn’t.’ ‘No, it wasn’t. But that is just one of your possible lives. And one into infinity is a very small fraction indeed.
”
”
Matt Haig (The Midnight Library)
“
The suffering of abused pets amounts to a tiny fraction of the suffering we inflict on animals. In 2012 there were 164 million owned dogs and cats in the United States.2 The majority of them probably live reasonably good lives, but even if every single one of them were abused, this number would be dwarfed by the 9.1 billion animals annually raised and slaughtered for food in the United States.3 Factory-farmed animals have to endure a lifetime of suffering much more severe than the typical dog or cat, and in the United States there are fifty-five times as many factory-farmed animals as there are dogs and cats. Anyone who kept a dog confined in the way that breeding sows are frequently confined in factory farms—in crates so small they cannot even turn around or walk a single step—would be liable to prosecution for cruelty. In The Animal Activists’ Handbook Matt Ball and Bruce Friedrich make a startling claim that vividly illustrates the vastly greater suffering of animals raised for food compared to other ways in which we cause animals to suffer: “Every year, hundreds of millions of animals—many times more than the total number killed for fur, housed in shelters, and locked in laboratories combined—don’t even make it to slaughter. They actually suffer to death.
”
”
Peter Singer (The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically)
“
Kamimura has been whispering all week of a sacred twenty-four-hour ramen spot located on a two-lane highway in Kurume where truckers go for the taste of true ramen. The shop is massive by ramen standards, big enough to fit a few trucks along with those drivers, and in the midafternoon a loose assortment of castaways and road warriors sit slurping their noodles. Near the entrance a thick, sweaty cauldron boils so aggressively that a haze of pork fat hangs over the kitchen like waterfall mist.
While few are audacious enough to claim ramen is healthy, tonkotsu enthusiasts love to point out that the collagen in pork bones is great for the skin. "Look at their faces!" says Kamimura. "They're almost seventy years old and not a wrinkle! That's the collagen. Where there is tonkotsu, there is rarely a wrinkle."
He's right: the woman wears a faded purple bandana and sad, sunken eyes, but even then she doesn't look a day over fifty. She's stirring a massive cauldron of broth, and I ask her how long it's been simmering for.
"Sixty years," she says flatly.
This isn't hyperbole, not exactly. Kurume treats tonkotsu like a French country baker treats a sourdough starter- feeding it, regenerating, keeping some small fraction of the original soup alive in perpetuity. Old bones out, new bones in, but the base never changes. The mother of all ramen.
Maruboshi Ramen opened in 1958, and you can taste every one of those years in the simple bowl they serve. There is no fancy tare, no double broth, no secret spice or unexpected toppings: just pork bones, noodles, and three generations of constant simmering.
The flavor is pig in its purest form, a milky broth with no aromatics or condiments to mitigate the purity of its porcine essence.
”
”
Matt Goulding (Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture)
“
The day-to-day horror of writing gave me a notion of tournament time. Writing novels is tedious. When will this book be finished, when will it reveal its bright and shining true self? it takes freakin’ years. At the poker table, you’re only playing a fraction of the hands, waiting for your shot. If you keep your wits, can keep from flying apart while those around you are self-destructing, devouring each other, you’re halfway there. … Let them flame out while you develop a new relationship with time, and they drift away from the table. 86-7
Coach Helen’s mantra: It’s OK to be scared, but don’t play scared. 90
[During a young adult trip to Los Vegas] I was contemplating the nickel in my hand. Before we pushed open the glass doors, what the heck, I dropped it into a one-armed bandit and won two dollars.
In a dank utility room deep in the subbasements of my personality, a little man wiped his hands on his overalls and pulled the switch: More. Remembering it now, I hear a sizzling sound, like meat being thrown into a hot skillet. I didn't do risk, generally. So I thought. But I see now I'd been testing the House Rules the last few years. I'd always been a goody-goody. Study hard, obey your parents, hut-hut-hut through the training exercises of Decent Society. Then in college, now that no one was around, I started to push the boundaries, a little more each semester. I was an empty seat in lecture halls, slept late in a depressive funk, handed in term papers later and later to see how much I could get away with before the House swatted me down.
Push it some more. We go to casinos to tell the everyday world that we will not submit. There are rules and codes and institutions, yes, but for a few hours in this temple of pure chaos, of random cards and inscrutable dice, we are in control of our fates. My little gambles were a way of pretending that no one was the boss of me. …
The nickels poured into the basin, sweet music. If it worked once, it will work again.
We hit the street. 106-8
[Matt Matros, 3x bracelet winner; wrote The Making of a Poker Player]: “One way or another you’re going to have a read, and you’re going to do something that you didn’t expect you were going to do before, right or wrong. Obviously it’s better if you’re right, but even if you’re wrong, it can be really satisfying to just have a read, a feeling, and go with it. Your gut.”
I could play it safe, or I could really play. 180
Early on, you wanted to stay cool and keep out of expensive confrontations, but you also needed to feed the stack. The stack is hungry. 187
The awful knowledge that you did what you set out to do, and you would never, ever top it. It was gone the instant you put your hands on it. It was gambling. 224
”
”
Colson Whitehead (The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death)
“
Yes, sure, God could not exist. But then neither could humans. So, if they believed in themselves - the logic must go - why not believe in something that was only a fraction more unlikely?
”
”
Matt Haig (The Humans)
“
Great thing about asking a real cab hack for directions is they'll know where you want to go. Bad thing is they give it to you in cabbie. Lots of "turn left by the hobo peeing on the cat" sorta stuff.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon)
“
A zero in ten-to-the-power-of-forever chance. And yet there she was, in front of me, and I was quite taken aback by it all; I really was. Suddenly it made me realize why religion was such a big thing around here. Because, yes, sure, God could not exist. But then neither could humans. So, if they believed in themselves—the logic must go—why not believe in something that was only a fraction more unlikely?
”
”
Matt Haig (The Humans)
“
You are both Goddesses of the Stars, no need to get punitive.'
'And yet, "punitive" is what we do so very well.
”
”
Matt Fraction (ODY-C #1)
“
If she doesn't want to go down on you, try improving the taste of your semen by eating watermelon, celery, her pussy.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 2: Two Worlds, One Cop)
“
Fellas! Want to drive her wild? Then learn how to fold a goddamn bath towel, Gerry, jesus FUCK.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick)
“
Having sex in new locations can be exciting, like when Neil Armstrong fucked the moon.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick)
“
I've talked to girls who were so blasé about their orgasm. Like it was another thing to do, like I was making it too mythical, too big. Like it wasn't important. Fuck you. This is huge for me. I am God now.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick)
“
Along with working on the Basel problem, Euler realized that adding an infinite sequence of reciprocal powers for all whole numbers will give you the same answer as multiplying together an infinite sequence of fractions which use only the prime numbers. So the zeta function can be written as two different equations, one of which relies only on the prime numbers. The one which uses all the whole numbers gives the same result as the prime fractions, but it's easier to work with. We know what all the whole numbers are, but we don't know what all the primes are. So we can substitute one for the other.
”
”
Matt Parker (Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension)
“
Investigating the sum of reciprocal powers gives insights into the product of all the primes (in fraction form).
”
”
Matt Parker (Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension)
“
Oresme's genius was to make a new series which was definitely smaller than the harmonic series. He took the list of all unit fractions, and for any of them which did not have a power of two as a denominator, he replaced it with a smaller fraction which did. As all these new fractions were either the same or smaller, the total of this new series had therefore to be smaller than the sum of the harmonic series. But when Oresme grouped these fractions into runs, each of which added up to 1/2, he was left with a sum of an infinite sequence of 1/2s, which definitely diverges. This meant in turn that the greater harmonic series must also diverge. Oresme had proved that a sequence of ever-decreasing numbers could still be divergent. (His proof was lost for a while, and the same result was independently rediscovered in the 1600s.)
”
”
Matt Parker (Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension)
“
Hiiii Jonny. It's ya girl, Suzanne DeQuaalude-Handjob. And i want you to rrrruin me.
”
”
Matt Fraction
“
Relationships are about the three Cs: compassion, communication, Camaros, and counting.
”
”
Matt Fraction
“
My kitty wishes to engulf you within her darkened delta of destruction.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 3: Three the Hard Way)
“
Death to the pale-penised man-monster! Death to the pendulous-breasted harridan!
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 3: Three the Hard Way)
“
I'm going to ejaculate sparkles into your heart!
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 3: Three the Hard Way)
“
How do we define "normal?" Quite literally it comes from the Latin norma meaning "carpenter's square." Straight. And "abnormal?" That's from the Greek anomalos, and the Latin abnormis meaning "monstrosity.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 3: Three the Hard Way)
“
Hold that thought, ya tracksuit Dracula. You asked about The Avengers. Y'wanna know the best part about being an Avenger? Having Captain America around you all the time. He just– The guy just brings out the absolute best in people. You… want to be good when he’s around. You really do. Ivan, look around you real quick. Because, right now? Captain America ain’t here.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon)
“
So, if they believed in themselves—the logic must go—why not believe in something that was only a fraction more unlikely? •
”
”
Matt Haig (The Humans)
“
Suddenly it made me realise why religion was such a big thing around here. Because, yes, sure, God could not exist. But then neither could humans. So, if they believed in themselves – the logic must go – why not believe in something that was only a fraction more unlikely?
”
”
Matt Haig (The Humans)
“
There’s just so much plastic out there. Anything that we produce in any given year is just a small fraction of what we’ve already put into the environment that ultimately ends up in the ocean.” And so a “microplastic cycle” comes into view.
”
”
Matt Simon (A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies)
“
Maybe my black hole is too big to control. Or I'm too small to control it. Same days it drags me back in. And I'm twelve years old again. Other days it's pull on me is so faint...I can't even remember his face.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 6: Six Criminals)
“
Never feeling new joy is too high a price to pay for never feeling new pain.
”
”
Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Vol. 6: Six Criminals)
“
And one into infinity is a very small fraction indeed.
”
”
Matt Haig (The Midnight Library)