There are literally Internet rescue camps in China and Korea to deal with children that are addicted. Internet disorder is maybe going to count as a psychiatric disorder in a couple of years. Pico Iyer Read Quote
I suppose even when I was growing up, I noticed I was most happy when I was absorbed in something, lost in the moment and forgot the time, whether was conversation, movie, or a game I was playing. That was my definition of happiness. And I was least happy when I was all over the place, distracted and restless. Pico Iyer Read Quote
Abjure all accretions and turn off the lights. Put on some music – Leonard Cohen, say, perhaps his ‘Various Positions’ – and let your mind cool down. Soon you’ll forget there’s a word called ‘stress.’ Pico Iyer Read Quote
I’m no Buddhist monk, and I can’t say I’m in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I’ve written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn’t want or need, not all I did. Pico Iyer Read Quote
In the two-room flat where I live in Japan, I try to take time every day to step away from the bombardment of e-mails and opportunities and papers around my desk, for an hour, and just sit on our 30-inch terrace in the sun, reading something sustaining, whether ‘The Age of Innocence’ or the latest by Colm Toibin. Pico Iyer Read Quote
Something in us is telling us we’re moving too fast, at a pace dictated by machines rather than by anything human, and that unless we take conscious measures, we’ll permanently be out of breath. Pico Iyer Read Quote
It’s only by taking myself away from clutter and distraction that I can begin to hear something out of earshot and recall that listening is much more invigorating than giving voice to all the thoughts and prejudices that anyway keep me company twenty-four hours a day. Pico Iyer Read Quote
It takes courage, of course, to step out of the fray, as it takes courage to do anything that’s necessary, whether tending to a loved one on her deathbed or turning away from that sugarcoated doughnut. Pico Iyer Read Quote
Though I knew that poverty certainly didn’t buy happiness, I wasn’t convinced that money did, either. Pico Iyer Read Quote
