April 2012
23 posts
2 tags
Breath
Breath: pause, caesura, a break, the skip of a beat, your beat, the one I used to know.
Another breath: trying to breathe alone, the stench of the alley, or the homeless man drifting closer, Hey, pretty girl, alone again, maybe, maybe not - a jab to the ribs, solar plexus, a knife slid in, then out, not leaving a mark, only a small pucker, a little blood.
Or, breathlessness: almost seeing your...
3 tags
“Failure to create some form of predictability will result in chaos. Failure to...”
– Michael Lopp (via smarterthaniam)
1 tag
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“I can’t read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it...”
– Alfred Hitchcock
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“What we speak becomes the house we live in.”
– Hafiz
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On Picasso's quote, “Art is a lie that tells the... →
austinkleon:
“Art is a lie that tells the truth.” With so many quotes attributed to Picasso, it’s hard to track down where they actually came from, or whether they were even said at all.
In 1923, Picasso talked about cubism with an American critic named Marius de Zayas. The discussion was translated (with his approval) and published as “Picasso Speaks,” in The Arts. What Picasso is really...
March 2012
26 posts
4 tags
It Is Enough
She brings me here again, wants to hear the names: bluebonnet, Black-eyed Susan, Shasta daisy. It isn’t enough. She mouths the words, feels them swirl against her mouth, smack against her teeth. She shakes her head. It isn’t enough. She wants to know more. She wants me to remember more, to speak the real names, the names I don’t know and never bothered to learn. Lupine…She’s shaking her head...
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“Athletes know the power of triggering a ritual. A pro golfer may walk along the...”
– Twyla Tharp
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AUSTIN KLEON: Orwell’s “dos” vs. Orwell’s “don’ts” →
austinkleon:
Shaun at Lists of Note recently posted George Orwell’s “Rules for Writers” from his incredible “Politics and the English Language”:
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it…
5 tags
“In order to have creativity, you have to allow for dead ends to happen.”
– Christoph Niemann
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Warm Heart
The Queen orders it put on display. Everyone comes to the art opening, watches it stop beating.
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“Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what...”
– Barbara Kingsolver
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“When asked for advice on painting, Claude Monet told people not to fear...”
– Shaun McNiff
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“In the ideal — that is to say, real — artist, fears not only continue to exist,...”
– David Bayles and Ted Orland
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Alice
We thought she would save us. We guided her to the moment -
the hedgehogs and flamingos stilled, waited to hear her voice.
Nothing.
No sound. Not a word.
She walked away, disappeared up the rabbit hole.
Sound resumed.
The Mad Hatter invited everyone to tea. Everyone declined, except
the hare. The King stated
he was weary, gestured to his still tender arms.
The Queen took offense, said...
4 tags
“The acquiring of culture is the developing of an avid hunger for knowledge and...”
– Jesse Lee Bennett
4 tags
4 tags
“Thanks to art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply...”
– Marcel Proust 