Expensive Pieces

Famous quotes containing the words expensive and/or pieces:

“The mystical nature of American consumption accounts for its joylessness. We spend a great deal of time in stores, but if we don’t seem to take much pleasure in our buying, it’s because we’re engaged in the acts of sacrifice and self-definition. Abashed in the presence of expensive merchandise, we recognize ourselves ... as supplicants admitted to a shrine.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)

“I saw
that from his lower lip
if you could call it a lip—
grim, wet, and weaponlike,
hung five old pieces of fish-line,”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)