“One Reason Cats Are Happier Than People”

From a New York Times column by Dwight Garner headlined “What Writers Say About the Plague Season”:

It was an uncertain spring.

— VIRGINIA WOOLF, “THE YEARS”

Some days felt longer than other days. Some days felt like two whole days.

— JOSHUA FERRIS, “THEN WE CAME TO THE END”

I have let myself go and am less strict with myself.

— LEO TOLSTOY, DIARY

Nuts to the educational value of suffering.

— ROBERT CHRISTGAU, “GOING INTO THE CITY”

One reason cats are happier than people is that they have no newspapers.

— GWENDOLYN BROOKS, “IN THE MECCA”

Maybe beauty is medicine quivering on the spoon.

— LUCIA PERILLO, “FUBAR”

If you don’t know the exact moment when the lights will go out, you might as well read until they do.

— CLIVE JAMES, “LATEST READINGS”

Life’s tallest order is to keep the feelings up, to make two dollars’ worth of euphoria go the distance.

— STANLEY ELKIN, “PIECES OF SOAP”