Car

"Looking out a dirty old window; down below the cars in the city go rushing by. I sit here alone and I wonder why."

"Averroës, Kant, Socrates, Newton, Voltaire, could any of them have believed it possible that in the twentieth century the scourge of cities, the poisoner of lungs, the mass murderer and idol of millions would be a metal receptacle on wheels, and that people would actually prefer being crushed to death inside it during frantic weekend exoduses instead of staying, safe and sound, at home?"

"Then theres power. There was a time when people cooed over Ferraris that developed 200 horsepower, whereas today 2.0 litre Escorts can manage that. Its almost impossible to buy a car that wont do a hundred. (If you really want one, various Mercedes diesels make a pretty good stab at it.) Then theres the environment. The Volkswagen Beetle could kill a rain forest at 400 paces whereas todays Golf trundles around with tulips coming out of its exhaust. The gas coming out of a Saab is actually cleaner than the air that went in. Thats true, that is."

"... America aims at having a car for every citizen. I do not. I want freedom for full expression of my personality."

"Everyone with no car, wants to buy it. And anyone who has a car, wants to sell it. And he doesnt do it just because he will stay without a car."

"Driving is a spectacular form of amnesia. Everything is to be discovered, everything to be obliterated. Admittedly, there is the primal shock of the deserts and the dazzle of California, but when this is gone, the secondary brilliance of the journey begins, that of the excessive, pitiless distance, the infinity of anonymous faces and distances, or of certain miraculous geological formations, which ultimately testify to no human will, while keeping intact an image of upheaval. This form of travel admits of no exceptions: when it runs up against a known face, a familiar landscape, or some decipherable message, the spell is broken: the amnesic, ascetic, asymptotic charm of disappearance succumbs to affect and worldly semiology."

"You know, when I was sixteen I was only thinking about two things: cars and girls ... I wasnt very good with girls so that kind of narrowed it down a little bit. ... Although if you had the right car, it helped with girls, too. ... I mean, Americans love cars ... They are loving their cars. And, it all started here, too. ... There is really nothing more quintessentially American than the car."

"But Cayce sees that there is a Michelin Man within her field of vision, its white, bloated, maggot−like form perched on the edge of a dealers counter, about thirty feet away. It is about two feet tall, and is probably meant to be illuminated from within. The Michelin Man was the first trademark to which she exhibited a phobic reaction. She had been six."

"In Los Angeles, everything is based on driving, even the killings. In New York, most people dont have cars, so if you want to kill a person, you have to take the subway to their house. And sometimes on the way, the train is delayed and you get impatient, so you have to kill someone on the subway. Thats why there are so many subway murders; no one has a car."

"Contemporary man has tried to substitute the car for the cow pony, but it simply doesnt work. True, in a car he is mobile, and once behind the wheel he can feel the excitement of command, but nevertheless the car is bound to the road, inhibited by traffic, and frustrated by regulations essential to his safety but which he often feels rob him of the true freedom he wants."

"Nine-tenths of our crimes an calamities are made possible by th automobile. It has unleashed all th pent-up criminal tendencies o th ages. Its th central figure in murders, hold-ups, burglaries, accidents, elopements, failures an abscondments. It has well nigh jimmed th American home.... No girl is missin that wuzn last seen steppin in a strange automobile.... An ther haint a day rolls by that somebuddy haint sellin ther sewin machine, or ther home, or somethin t pay on an automobile.... Maybe th jails an workhouses are empty, but thats not because th world is gittin better. Its because all th criminals escape in automobiles."

"The longstanding perception that bigger cars are safer is bolstered by vehicle safety ratings which look at the safety of the drivers and passengers, but don’t take into account the dangers any given vehicle poses to pedestrians, something European regulators consider. And these larger, heavier cars are harder on roads, which we all pay to maintain."