Impossible, I realize, to enter another’s solitude. If it is true that we can ever come to know another human being, even to a small degree, it is only to the extent that he is willing to make himself known. A man will say: I am cold. Or else he will say nothing, and we will see him shivering. Either way, we will know that he is cold. But what of the man who says nothing and does not shiver? Where all is tractable, where all is hermetic and evasive, one can do no more than observe. But whether one can make sense of what he observes is another matter entirely.
— Paul Auster, The Invention of Solitude. (Sun Publishing 1982)
Paul Auster — The Vale of Soul-Making
Edmund White – On Art and Creativity
I believe it was Schiller who said that the only time a human being is free is when he or she creates a work of art; if that’s true, then a work of art is sacred and shouldn’t be compromised by mere ambition.
– Edmund White in his Paris Review Interview
The Flight of the Cranes — cakeordeathsite
Although the nightmarish Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont (pseudonym of Isidore Ducasse) was first published in 1868/69, more than fifty years before Paris Dada began to re-form as Surrealism, it was such a major precursor and influence upon a number of Surrealist artists that it can be considered as the movement’s black […]
On the Subject of Revisiting Books — The Past Due Review
There are those who believe that a book should be read once and then passed on to its next reader; I am not one of them. Granted, many of the books I read end up becoming favorites of mine (19 of the books reviewed on my blog have been re-reads), but most end up being […]
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“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” — Art of Quotation
“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” Erich Fromm, philosopher, author, sociologist
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Fernando Pessoa – Pour être grand, sois entier… — BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD
Pour être grand, sois entier : rien En toi n’exagère ou n’exclus. Sois tout en chaque chose. Mets tout ce que tu es Dans le plus petit de tes actes. Ainsi en chaque lac brille la lune entière Pour la raison qu’elle vit haut. * Para ser grande, sê inteiro: nada Para ser grande, sê […]
via Fernando Pessoa – Pour être grand, sois entier… — BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD
Naked Cities Journal 