“Sometimes I leave a chair slightly pulled out,
just to remind the universe it isn’t done seating me yet.”
— Noah Clooney
About the Quote & Noah Clooney
Noah Clooney (b. 1952), reclusive American philosopher and former jazz clarinettist, was never one for neat conclusions—either in thought or furniture arrangement.
This quote, allegedly recorded on the back of a supermarket receipt and found in a laundromat in Duluth, captures Noah’s lifelong tension between existential waiting and mild defiance. To Clooney, a half-pulled chair wasn’t a tripping hazard—it was a symbol of unfinished business, unresolved meaning, and the idea that we’re all still waiting to be seated somewhere important, even if no one knows where that table is.
Was it metaphor? Performance art? Mild untidiness? In Clooney’s world, it’s all three.
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