“When you return home, sit down and write a poem or story; then tear it up without showing anyone just to enjoy the harmless pleasure of doing something creative”
— Kurt Vonnegut
Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person’s face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. they are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It’s okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.
— Miranda July
Hope and optimism are different. Optimism tends to be based on the notion that there’s enough evidence out there that allows us to believe things are gonna be better, much more rational, deeply secular, whereas hope looks at the evidence and says, “It doesn’t look good at all. It doesn’t look good at all. Gonna go beyond the evidence to create new possibilities based on visions that become contagious to allow people to engage in heroic actions always against the odds, no guarantee whatsoever.” That’s hope. I’m a prisoner of hope thought. Gonna die a prisoner of hope.
— Cornel West
Hope and optimism are different. Optimism tends to be based on the notion that there’s enough evidence out there that allows us to believe things are gonna be better, much more rational, deeply secular, whereas hope looks at the evidence and says, “It doesn’t look good at all. It doesn’t look good at all. Gonna go beyond the evidence to create new possibilities based on visions that become contagious to allow people to engage in heroic actions always against the odds, no guarantee whatsoever.” That’s hope. I’m a prisoner of hope thought. Gonna die a prisoner of hope.
— Cornel West
To develop a voice, you need to develop an ear. To develop a vision you need to develop an eye. To develop your mark as an artist, you need to see the marks of others- especially the marks of those who are unrecognized. Everyone around you is making a mark of some kind.
— Anna Deavere Smith “Letters to a young artst”
Some of us are so obsessed with the past that we die of it. It is the attitude of the poet who never finds the lost heaven and it is really the situation of artists who work for a reason that nobody can quite grasp. They might want to reconstruct something of the past to exorcise if. It is that the part for certain people has such a hold and such a beauty
— Louise Bourgeois
why art? why write stories, make movies? what is the purpose of making art, in your view? “I’m just gonna go for broke on this one and say that we do it because life is so ridiculously gorgeous, strange, heartbreaking, horrific, etc., that we are compelled to describe it to ourselves, but we can’t! We cannot to do it! And so we make art.”
— Miranda July
She released a small cloud of telepathic butterflies… like all earthlings at the point of death, Mary Young sent faint reminders of herself to those who had known her.
— Kurt Vonnegut
Pretend you are the very first man and then write what you see and experience what you love and lose. Do not write love poems, at least at first, they present the greatest challenge. It requires great, fully ripened power to produce something personal, something unique, when there are so many good and sometimes even brilliant renditions in great numbers. Beware of general themes. Cling to those that your everyday life offers you. Write about your sorrows, your wishes, your passing thoughts, your belief in anything beautiful. describe all that with fervent, quiet, and humble sincerity. In order to express yourself, use things in your surroundings, the scenes of your dreams, and the subjects of your memory
— Rainer Maria Rilke “Letters to a Young Poet”
Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, not small, but valuable. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven’t been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around?
— “You’ve Got Mail”
It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.
— “American Beauty”
Motherhood is not a natural instinct but a historical product & result of the modern period
Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering
— Nicole Krauss
