Archive for February, 2009
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling. My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition. I mock this skull. I look at it and I […]
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Tags: book, life of pi, novel, quote, yann martel
Jazz, Toni Morrison
This notion of rest, it’s attractive to her, but I don’t think she would like it. They are all like that, these women. Waiting for the ease, the space that need not be filled with anything other than the drift of their own thoughts. But they wouldn’t like it. They are busy and thinking of […]
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Tags: book, jazz, novel, quote, quotes, toni morrison
I Think of You, Ahdaf Soueif
To everything there is an order and a pattern. And the pattern and the order are good. Time, from one birthday to the next, runs gently by, overflowing with an abundance of pleasures. If there are fears and griefs, they are minor and I am always able to be comforted by the grown-ups. -p.11 Her […]
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Tags: ahdaf soueif, book, i think of you, novel, quote, quotes
Symposium, Plato
For the original human nature was not like the present, but different….There were man, women, and the union of the two… and the word “Androgynous” (Having characteristics of both male (and-) and female (gyn-)) is only preserved as a term of the reproach….Terrible were their might and strength, and the thought of their hearts was […]
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Tags: discussion, plato, symposium
(I) You have a new message Kiss the kids goodbye from me Keep well, keep strong, you know I’m sure, but here’s to say I love you. I lay these voice-prints like a set of tracks, to stop you getting lost among the tall trees beneath the break-less canopy, on the long slow walk you […]
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Tags: last words, michael symmons roberts, poet, poetry
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
Children are more honest, they aren’t frightened of the truth, but we are so afraid of seeming to be behind the times that we are ready to betray what is most dear to us, and praise what repels us, and say yes to what we don’t understand. About dreams. It is usually taken for granted […]
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Tags: book, boris pasternak, doctor zhivago, novel, quote
Looking for Alaska, John Green
It was right then, between when I asked about the labyrinth and when she answered me, that I realized the importance of curves, of the thousand places where girls’ bodies ease from one place to another, from arc of the foot to ankle t calf, from calf to hip to wait to breast to nec […]
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Tags: book, John Green, Looking for Alaska, novel, quote
The Harafish, Naguib Mahfouz
“It’s not for us to resist death, Ashur.” He looked down in embarrassment and said, “We have a right to resist death as well as to die at the appointed time.” – p.36 For when people are caught in the grip of unyielding force and see no chance of escape, they are desperate to believe […]
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Tags: book, naguib mahfouz, novel, quote, the harafish
Simon Armitage
You’re beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets line up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light at your miniature feet. I’m ugly for saying ‘love at first sight’ is another form of mistaken identity, and that the most human of all responses is to gloat. […]
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Tags: book of matches, poet, poetry, Simon Armitage, you're beautiful
Highlights and Coffee Stains 