The Uncool by Cameron Crowe, r. Jun. 2026

p. 84 I always felt that a favorite song has a mind of its own. It arrives just when you need it, and that arrival memory remains for the rest of time. Every time you hear the song, you can remember the feeling, like you're reading a diary entry. It's one of music's greatest gifts.

p. 106 Sometimes the story isn't the one you came to write but the one that finds you instead.

p. 126 "It's pretty clear now that what looked like it might have been some kind of counterculture is in reality just the plain old chaos of undifferentiated weirdness." – Jerry Garcia

p. 200 "The best writing – the best music – is personal, and it takes a stand. Did you take a stand?"

p. 218 "I've learned to flow with myself. I honestly don't know where the real David Jones is. It's like playing the pea game. I've got so many shells I've forgotten what the pea looks like. I wouldn't know what it looked like if I found it. Being famous helps put off the problems of discovering myself. That's the main reason why I've always been so keen on being accepted and why I've strived so hard to put my brain to artistic use. In any other profession I don't think I'd survive very long in an established society. I'm gonna have terrific problems one day ... I get that feeling." – David Bowie

p. 256 "Here's the thing," she said forcefully. "You have two options. You can stay the same and protect the formula that gave you your initial success. They're going to crucify you for staying the same. If you change, they're going to crucify you for changing. But staying the same is boring. And change is interesting. So, of the two options," she concluded, "I'd rather be crucified for changing." – Joni Mitchell

p. 274 As I looked at the photo now in [Gregg Allman's] weathered and tattooed hands, it occurred to me that the entire goal of Almost Famous had always been simple – to capture that moment of promise.

p. 285 "I've outlived everybody's desire to be around me," [Cameron Crowe's mom Alice] said softly. Without self pity. Just a student of human behavior.

p. 289 I heard myself sound different [in the hospital, talking with the doctor about his mom's imminent death]. A strange nobility can take over in situations like this. Suddenly, you are the righteous hero of your own movie. You take a little bit from Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, or a lot from a hundred different television shows, and you combine it with the best version of yourself. I figured out a name for it. Hero adrenaline.

p. 299 Standing in the courtyard, I learned that over time the details fade. What lasts is the way someone made you feel.

Working by Studs Terkel and adapted by Harvey Pekar, r. Dec. 2025

 p. xxi Nora Watson may have said it most succinctly. "I think most of us are looking for a calling, not a job. Most of us, like the assembly-line worker, have jobs that are too small for our spirit. Jobs are not big enough for people."

p. 99 "I get up about noon. I would only consider myself outside the norm because of the way other people live. They're constantly reminding me I'm abnormal. I could never bear to live the dull lives that most people live, locked up in offices. I live in absolute freedom. I do what I do because I want to do it. What's wrong with making a living doing something interesting?" (jazz musician)

p. 101 "Hundreds of times I've gone to work thinking, oh my God, I hate to think of playing tonight. It's going to be awful. But something on that given night takes place and I'm excited before it's over. Does that make sense? If you have that kind of night, you're not aware of the time, because of this thing that hits you." (jazz musician)

p. 104 "Real talent takes a long time to mature, to learn how to bring what character you have into sound, into your playing, not the instrument, but the style of music you're trying to create should be an extension of you. And this takes a whole life." (jazz musician)

p. 160 "Peace and quiet and privacy have meant a great deal to me since I made my escape. Of course I'm a has-been. Radio itself is a has-been. But the quiz kids achieved history and I'm proud to have been part of it. ...The reason I like this job is that my mind is at ease all day long..." (greenhouse worker and former child genius)

p. 162 He dropped out of high school. "It's a good way to go. Take what you can stand and don't take any more than that. It's what God put the tongue in your mouth for. If it don't taste right, you spit it out." (carpenter)

p. 163 "Any work, you kneel down – it's a kind of worship. It's part of the holiness of things, work, yes. Just like drawing breath is. It's necessary. If you don't breathe, you're dead. It's kind of a sacrament, too." (carpenter)