June 2012
51 posts
“The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.”
– Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
“That’s what fiction is for. It’s for getting at the truth when the truth isn’t...”
– Tim O’Brien (The Things They Carried)
Summer Fiction Sale here July 9 through 15! Everything from children’s and YA to comics to regular ole’ books. Get THE TRUTH.
(via housingworksbookstore)
“6. Don’t yell, don’t run, don’t worry, and above all, don’t quit.”
– What getting lost in the woods teaches us about the creative life – 7 lessons from the U.S. Forest Service circa 1946
So I tell myself…
ChuckPalahniuk: Chuck Palahniuk FAQ Part 4: →
chuckpalahniuk:
Who is Chuck’s favorite character? Denny from Choke. Based on a real friend of Chuck’s that died from Hepatitis D, Denny represents, what Chuck calls, “an enlightened dumbness” and is one of the few characters Chuck has written that he really cared for.
Are fight clubs real (If so, where can I…
Research and the small details are so important.
1 tag
Who-Ville
They started late. The guy that told the band they could use his PA system showed up without an apology a few minutes before they were supposed to go on. Just as well, really. The guitarist broke a string almost as soon as he plugged in. He didn’t have a spare set and he scrambled for a replacement.
Well, I should tell you that the guitarist is my husband, Jack. This is the first time his...
3 tags
“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something,...”
– Remembering Nora Ephron , who passed away last night at the age of 71, with her most timeless words on women, love, happiness, reading, life, and death
“Entrepreneurialism isn’t about what happened last night, but about the morning...”
– Sir Richard Branson in the introduction to Velocity: The Seven New Laws for a World Gone Digital. (via explore-blog)
“To ignore the truth inside the lie is to sin against the craft, in general, and...”
– Stephen King
“As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don’t think you...”
– In 2006, a young boy named Jeremy wrote To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee an endearing fan letter, asking for a signed photo. She didn’t send one, but offered this gem of advice in its lieu – a fine addition to our archive of timeless advice. (via explore-blog)
“College is a place where the professor’s lecture notes go straight to the...”
– Mark Twain, quoted by Daphne Koller at TEDGlobal 2012 (via explore-blog)
“We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and...”
– from the essay “Living Like Weasels” by Annie Dillard (via readandbreathe)
“I suppose it could also be said we’re known to the extent that we’re dull and...”
– From “The Crime That Never Was” in the essay collection ORPHANS by Charles D’Ambrosio. (via readandbreathe)
Exile
wwnorton:
My hands have not touched pleasure since your hands, — No, — nor my lips freed laughter since ‘farewell’, And with the day, distance again expands Voiceless between us, as an uncoiled shell. Yet, love endures, though starving and alone. A dove’s wings clung about my heart each night With surging gentleness, and the blue stone Set in the tryst-ring has but worn more bright.
-Hart...
“When I write, I’m not conscious of much, as least for the first draft. You need...”
– Joshua Henkin, interviewed by Anna Solomon for The Millions.
Lazlo’s Lament
The winter sun melted into the far skyline, and dusk had gathered those who were left behind. My friend and I huddled in our coats against the rising chill. I’ve been to this park since I was a child, but the differences in the sounds still take me by surprise. Standing in the Great Lawn, I could see the city around me, but it is as if it were put together by a Broadway prop department. I knew...
“All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.”
– Federico Fellini and other great creators define art
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And in the end, where there were too many sticks and not enough carrots, you looked out to a setting sun and decided “then it will happen.” And much to your horror, you realized that in death, as in life, the perfect time would never arrive.
“01. Keep good company
02. Notice the ordinary
03. Preserve the ephemeral
04....”
– Keith Yamashita on the 15 things Charles and Ray Eames teach us.
Or, hear it from the horse’s mouth – 15 timeless quotes by Charles Eames.
“You once described the inventor’s life as “one of failure.” How so?
I made...”
– Sir James Dyson on invention and failure, corroborating the creativity isn’t a Eureka! moment so much as persistent iteration and trasformation.
Also see other famous creators on the fear of failure.
“Remember that real success is maximizing your internally derived happiness. It...”
– Khan Academy founder Sal Khan’s 2012 MIT commencement address, a fine addition to the season’s best and a complement to some of the most timeless graduation speeches in modern history, including David Foster Wallace, Ellen DeGeneres, Aaron Sorkin, Barack Obama, Ray Bradbury, J. K. Rowling, Steve...
Romila Barryman: You'll Find Her Among Ghosts. →
daydreamsonlooseleafpaper:
She’s indifferent to her beauty - now that’s a stunning feature. Comfortable with where her facial attributes sit and how her hair frizzes in even the slightest bit of humidity. She’s comfortable with the way her skin sits centimetres away from her bones; she loves the way it breathes after her…
“I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast...”
– W. Somerset Maugham Moon and Sixpence
3 tags
At the bottom of everything, there exist two questions: “What are you afraid of,” and “what are you going to do about it.”
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The Last Reconciliation
The girl was sitting on the front steps, next to the row of chrysanthemums as she looked up at the moon and its cold light on the sleeping houses. The breeze tugged on her nightgown and blew the autumn leaves over her bare feet. Unwrapping her arms from around her shoulders, she lifted up her hand and let the silvery glow wash over her.
She leapt up at every sound, hoping it would be her...
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A rainy night, hot tea and Ulysses. Yay!
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Is Editing Important?
squishyeeyore:
oncelerswaifu:
50 shades of grey more like 50 shades of i didnt proofread
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Still Life with Guinness
“So, this is Davey Byrnes?” I asked. I looked around the crowded old pub at the bronze birds and the stained glass and the rugby on TV. I looked anywhere, anywhere but at him.
“Yes. Here you go, Dublin’s finest stout. Not quite the burgundy and goat cheese sandwich that Leopold Bloom had, but quite nice, just the same.” He set the pint glasses on the table.
“And the oysters?” I wondered out...
astrophe
dictionaryofobscuresorrows:
n. a hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head—a crisp analysis, a cathartic dialogue, a devastating comeback—which serves as a kind of psychological batting cage where you can connect more deeply with people than in the small ball of everyday life, which is a frustratingly cautious game of change-up pitches, sacrifice bunts, and...
Don’t worry about the things that want you to die. Worry about the things that want you to die slowly.
“The three-pound organ in your skull — with its pink consistency of Jell-o — is...”
– Neuroscientist David Eagleman
“Those who do not know the torment of the unknown cannot have the joy of...”
– Claude Bernard (via explore-blog) 