Stream Of Consciousness Quotes

• Consciousness... does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as 'chain' or 'train' do not describe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. It is nothing jointed; it flows. A 'river' or a 'stream' are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life. Source of the expression 'stream of consciousness'.

  William James

  Science, Expression, Talking

  The Principles of Psychology vol. 1, ch. 9 (1890).

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• Life is a continual flow of events, streaming in from the universal stream of consciousness in such a way that it exactly matches our own stream of consciousness.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Flow, Events, Way

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• The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you'll do yourself a service.

  Stephen Sondheim

  Writing, Paper, Consciousness

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• Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the Weather.

  Bill Hicks

  Funny, Dream, Witty

  "Sane Man". Documentary, Comedy, 1989.

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• We are all pilgrims on an elusive and endless road... Despite our attempts to build lives on stone foundations, our spirits continuously flow. Endless streams of consciousness ripple through our minds.

  Anthony Lawlor

  Journey, Mind, Flow

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• Suppose you turn your attention inward in search of this 'I'. You may encounter nothing more than an ever changing stream of consciousness, a flow of thoughts and feelings in which there is no real self to be discovered.

  Jim Holt

  Real, Self, Feelings

  Jim Holt (2012). “Why Does the World Exist?: One Man's Quest for the Big Answer”, p.256, Profile Books

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• Death is simply a break in our linear stream of consciousness.

  Robert Lanza

  Consciousness, Break, Linear

  "What Is Death?" by Robert Lanza, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 25, 2011.

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• Donald Trump speaks extemporaneously, often through stream of consciousness, where it doesn't seem to follow a trajectory.

  Ben Zimmer

  Consciousness, Speak, Trump

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• Fear is nothing more than a mental monster you have created, a negative stream of consciousness

  Robin Sharma

  Happiness, Inspiring, Success

  Robin Sharma (2003). “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny”, p.82, Jaico Publishing House

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• Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end.

  Haruki Murakami

  Butterfly, Sight, Punctuation Marks

  FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Jun 18, 2015

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• Then there is the further question of what is the relationship of thinking to reality. As careful attention shows, thought itself is in an actual process of movement. That is to say, one can feel a sense of flow in the stream of consciousness not dissimilar to the sense of flow in the movement of matter in general. May not thought itself thus be a part of reality as a whole? But then, what could it mean for one part of reality to 'know' another, and to what extent would this be possible?

  David Bohm

  Mean, Thinking, Reality

  "Wholeness and the Implicate Order". Book by David Bohm, 1980.

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• Most of my bits are long stream-of-consciousness- type things, and when I'm doing them onstage, other places to take the theme or idea will hit me, and I just go with it.

  Joe Rogan

  Ideas, Long, Consciousness

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• Whats fascinating is that when you write a script, its almost a stream of consciousness. You have an idea that it means something, but youre not always sure what. Then when you get on the set, the actors teach you.

  Gary Oldman

  Mean, Writing, Ideas

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• For the most part I write very stream of consciousness. I basically need to be recording an entire writing session because it's almost like I black out and just start singing whatever is on my mind and forget it as soon as I stop.

  Beth Moore

  Writing, Black, Mind

  Source: canadianbeats.ca

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• I think that will be a lot of fun for audiences to get the same stream of consciousness that was going through my head at the time. It was very exciting to suddenly recall what I was feeling at the time.

  Roland Joffe

  Fun, Thinking, Feelings

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• There's a fine line between a stream of consciousness and a babbling brook to nowhere.

  Dan Harmon

  Lines, Consciousness, Brooks

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• Continuous present is all we have, and stream of consciousness - which in a novel is arguably just as artificial as the stilted dialogue that you get in most conventional novels. They're all stratagems to try to get closer to the texture of lived life.

  Will Self

  Trying, Texture, Consciousness

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• When it comes to songs and music, yeah, people love to sing and dance and play music and tunes, and that stream of consciousness that exists in music, nobody knows where that comes from.

  Wynton Marsalis

  Song, Play, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• We tend to think of memories as monuments we once forged and may find intact beneath the weedy growth of years. But, in a real sense, memories are tied to and describe the present. Formed in an idiosyncratic way when they happened, they're also true to the moment of recall, including how you feel, all you've experienced, and new values, passions, and vulnerability. One never steps into the same stream of consciousness twice.

  Diane Ackerman

  Memories, Real, Passion

  Diane Ackerman (2004). “An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain”, p.78, Simon and Schuster

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• By tuning in to your minute-to-minute stream of consciousness, you discover the addictions that make you worried, anxious, resentful, uptight, afraid, angry, bored, etc. You thus use every uncomfortable emotion as an opportunity for consciousness growth. Even though you may still be feeling emotional and uptight, you begin to get at the roots of your ups and downs - your brief bits of pleasure and your long periods of unhappiness.

  Ken Keyes Jr.

  Opportunity, Emotional, Roots

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• I'm not a fast, stream-of-consciousness lyricist at all - I know some guys who are, and if there is one skill I wish I had, it's that.

  Jonny Lang

  Skills, Guy, Wish

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• I fantasised about F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' - I loved it, and then I read everything J. D. Salinger had to offer. Then I was turned on to Kerouac, and his spontaneous prose, his stream of consciousness way of writing. I admired him so much, and I romanticised so much about the '40s and '50s.

  Garrett Hedlund

  Writing, Scott Fitzgerald, Way

  "Garrett Hedlund: 'Life is fun when you're in motion'". Interview With Damon Wise, www.theguardian.com. October 6, 2012.

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• My thoughts went round and round and it occurred to me that if I ever wrote a novel it would be of the 'stream of consciousness' type and deal with an hour in the life of a woman at the sink.

  Barbara Pym

  Would Be, Consciousness, Hours

  Barbara Pym (2006). “Excellent Women”, p.120, Penguin

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• People often forget our emotional contribution to relationships and to marriage and that might be a completely sexist comment but, what I tried not to do [in "Fences"] is, I tried to just put that monologue as part of my stream of consciousness.

  Viola Davis

  Emotional, People, Might

  Source: shadowandact.com

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• What I don't like is taking it to extremes and making all these intellectualizations about what basically is simple music. It's simple stream-of-consciousness stuff in my songs. What I'm trying to get across is misinterpreted.

  Van Morrison

  Song, Simple, Trying

  Interview with Ritchie Yorke, ritchieyorke.com. April 21.

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