it's new year's eve

And I miss Aimee so much.

we are not a good judge

When I give talks I enjoy showing examples of artists who are/were consistantly going out on a limb and experimenting with new ideas, many of whom bring all of their unique personality traits to the forefront. (Maira Kalman, Tim Burton, James Joyce, Frieda Kahlo, Charles Eames, Picasso, to name but a few). Things that are often perceived as quirky and strange to the general public, yet these are the things that make for a unique voice. We all have them, are we willing to present them to others? A conclusion that we might come to at some point is that we are not a good judge of what others will respond to. Keri Smith via Lemonade

valerie and bruno

“These were the people I lived with, these were my friends, these were my family, this was myself...there was no separation between me and what I was photographing." Nan Goldin from Art News

Photo: Nan Goldin, Valerie and Bruno, Valerie with pink panties, Paris, 2001

nan goldin

Nan Goldin in Berlin and on Charlie Rose.

and i am the rain

the little lights off in the distance

(in one of those rooms we are

living) and I am the rain

and the others all

around you, and the loneliness you love,

and the universe that loves you specifically, maybe,

From "To Myself," Franz Wright

100 Abandoned Houses via hearthrobs and villains

just because

Just because they say, "Action," doesn't mean you have to do anything. Al Pacino to Jesse Eisenberg NYT

Painting: Wayne Thiebaud

does not bother to be poetical

"If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed." Jean Cocteau

Shoes: La Garconne

before I turned the book in

"As late as about three months before I turned the book in, I was just in despair, saying, "I don't know what the book's about. I don't know what the book's about. There's no story here." But that was partly because I didn't know how I was going to end it." Jonathon Franzen in Atlantic Unbound

you must first fall in love

"To take possession of a city of which you are not a native you must first fall in love there." John Banville, The Sea

Photo: Hadnet Tesfai on Freunde von Freunden

a small rehearsal

"The home straight of my novel is in sight, but I'm tired, tired, tired and the news is doing nothing to restore my energies

Oh, Best Beloveds, I am tired. I'm almost too tired to talk about the things that are tiring me. Then again – as with bad dentistry, unpleasant personal experiences and unpleasant gentleman callers – there's something minutely empowering about writing down the source of your woes and peering at them in effigy. It can become a small rehearsal for future change." AL Kennedy in The Guardian

Photo: Contempt (via ?)

longing

Though we dream and hardly know it, longing, like an angel, fosters us, smooths our hair, and brings us strawberries. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping: A Novel

Henri Cartier-Bresson - Romania, 1975 via UE

until the next day when you do it again

When I am working on a book or story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write… You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and you know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that. When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through. Ernest Hemingway via through the screen doors of discretion

Joan Miró This is the Colour of My Dreams (1925)

and I am much improved by it

Used Furniture Review: What does your revision process look like?

Rick Moody: It's really long. And I am much improved by it.

Interview here via my friend Jonathon Segol

Installation by Doris Salcedo

we know some things

"Students can get so bombarded in science classes and think that all is known. It's not. A book like this [ A Wrinkle in Time] can help them realize that we know some things, but really very very little." Shannon Lucid

Photo: NASA

get in the water

Sometimes I just stop people on the street to tell them about Wendy MacNaughton's work.

what I'm trying to say

is I am totally, madly, completely in love.

Photo from here.

at any rate

At any rate, let us love for a while, for a year or so, you and me. That's a form of divine drunkenness that we can all try. F Scott Fitzgerald, "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz"

Photo by Soledad Burgos via crankreport

the ordinary instant

Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant. Joan Didion

Cy Tombly, Letter of Resignation (detail) 1959-67

via Nearness of Distance