That’s the anguish of [writing]. Do this book, or die. You have to go through that.
—James Baldwin (via theparisreview)
I hate it when the only solution to a problem is ‘get a tattoo’
—Elizabeth Trundle (via nevver)
(via nevver)
But none of them realized as Dalí did that dreams are actually not indistinct and misty and floaty. They happen in the middle of the afternoon. Crystal clear. …And dreams don’t have a subtext. You don’t think in a dream. The most unusual stuff happens in the most unusal way. All in broad daylight with no shade.
—John Cooper Clarke, on Salvador Dalí (via nevver)
John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Try to live with the same intensity as a child. He doesn’t ask for explanations; he dives into each day as if it were a new adventure and, at night, sleeps tired and happy.
—Paolo Coehlo, Warrior of the Light
I don’t know about lying for novelists. I look at some of the great novelists, and I think the reason they are great is that they’re telling the truth. The fact is they’re using made-up names, made-up people, made-up places, and made-up times, but they’re telling the truth about the human being—what we are capable of, what makes us lose, laugh, weep, fall down, and gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kill each other and love each other.
—Maya Angelou (via theparisreview)
