My goal is to goad people into saying something that ruins their life.
A broad-backed ox can be driven straight on his road even by a small goad.
Of course people couldn't help but think I must be a bit of a dyke myself. And of course I am. Everyone is: a bit. So what? That never discouraged a man yet, in fact it seems to goad them on.
When confronted by a hungry wolf, it is unwise to goad the beast, as Cato would have us do. But it is equally unwise to imagine the snarling animal a friend and offer your hand, as Pompey does. " "Perhaps you would have us climb a tree!
Riches are a cause of evil, not because, of themselves, they do any evil, but because they goad men on to evil.
Sermons seldom convert sinners; they sometimes goad them into more sin.
By itself, an ordinary snapshot is no less banal than the petite madeleine in Proust's In Search of Lost Time. . . but as goad to memory, it is often the first integer in a sequence of recollections that has the power to deny time for the sake of love.
But a lot of writers - and I'm one of them - do tend to feel dissatisfied. It makes you a little hard to live with, but it's a goad and does keep you alert and restless.
