Zadie Smith:

The pursuit of happiness has always seemed to me a somewhat heavy American burden, but in Manhattan it is conceived as a peculiar form of duty.

Paul Graham:

Doing what you love is complicated. How much are you supposed to like what you do? Unless you know that, you don't know when to stop searching.

Brooks Riley:

Everything we might hope for in a next life is based on what we love in this one. But pleasures are ephemeral, whether it be a good book, a tasty meal, a glorious day, or a full life -- they all end. We experience tiny deaths at every turn -- the end of a movie, the last spoonful of ice cream, the sun sinking below the horizon, the last chord of a symphony. Without its inherent finiteness, a pleasure is indistinguishable from a heartbeat.

Tim Kreider:

'You're in love with that cat!' my then-girlfriend Margot once accused me. To be fair, she was a very attractive cat.