{"author":"Charles M. Blow","author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow","total_quotes":19,"quotes":[{"text":"My father was short for a man, with a child's plaything for a name - Spinner. He had flawless dark brown skin and a head full of big, wet-looking curls, black as oil. And he had the smile of a scoundrel - the kind of smile that disarmed men and undressed women.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["women","father","man "],"id":14151,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"},{"text":"A lie is like a cat: you need to stop it before it gets out the door or it’s really hard to catch.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["cats","lies"],"id":89241,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"},{"text":"Co-opted convictions will always betray you.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["beliefs","betrayal","co-opting","convictions"],"id":91588,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"},{"text":"We don’t vote for people because they are the exact embodiment of our values, but because they are likely to be the most responsive to them.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["democracy","elections","values","voting"],"id":98732,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"},{"text":"Children see God every day; they just don't call it that. It's the summer sky painted with cumulus clouds by day and sequined with a million stars by night. It's the sweet whispers of sweet gum trees and the sounds riding the tops of honeysuckle-scented breezes. Children feel God stuffed into brown fluffy dogs with stitches strong enough to withstand a good squeeze, and on the lips of round women who can't get enough sugar from Chocolate.I began to believe that God is us and nature, beauty and love, mystery and majesty, everything right and good.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["beauty","children","god","goodness","love","majesty","mystery","nature","religion"],"id":101986,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"},{"text":"I don't know how to describe the sound of a world crashing. Maybe there is no sound, just a great emptiness, an enveloping sorrow, a creeping nothingness that coils itself around you like a stiff wire.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["change","emptiness","life","nothingness","trauma"],"id":136941,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"},{"text":"All identity labels are umbrella terms to some degree, but this term 'bisexual' is not only serviceable, but it is sufficient. And yes, it brings together a bunch of people who are maybe shades different from one another. And maybe that's the beauty of labels: that they force you to be with other people and see the difference.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["together","identity","people "],"id":140012,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"},{"text":"There is no wrong time to do the right thing.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["right","timing","wrong"],"id":167464,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"},{"text":"One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient. In fact, a man convinced of his virtue even in the midst of his vice is the worst kind of man.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["empathy","harm","malice","understanding","vice","virtue"],"id":182367,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"},{"text":"America is not static. America is striving. And sometimes, America requires critique. Jingoism is an avoidance of realism. You can simultaneously love and be disappointed in the object of your love, wanting it to be better than it is. In fact, that is a measure of love. Honest critique is a pillar of patriotism.","author":"Charles M. Blow","tags":["love","america","better "],"id":190016,"author_id":"Charles+M.+Blow"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":19,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}