teenybooks

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conversations about art

In Writing, art, quote on 6 March 2009 with 83 comments

I am as everyone knows, a big writer and reader of long letters. Generally I’m fascinated by the language of things but by none more so than the way that two people communicate ideas to one another slowly over time.  Skillfully written letters (even by email) unfurl, beautifully, whether building thematically or chasing their own tails or even flitting from one point [...]

happy new year

In quote on 1 January 2009 with 1,202 comments

“A second chance- that’s the delusion. There never was to be but one. We work in the dark, we do what we can, we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”
Henry James

what life does.

In quote on 4 December 2008 with 936 comments

(ah. Yes. I know a lot of my post lately have consisted of reblogs from whiskey river, but some things are too good not to share)
Starfish
This is what life does. It lets you walk up to
the store to buy breakfast and the paper, on a
stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you have
your eggs, [...]

“the books we love…

In People, quote on 12 November 2008 with 108 comments

…love us back. In gratitude, we should promise not to cheat on them– not to pretend we’re better than they are; not to use them as target practice, agitprop, trampolines, photo ops or stalking horses; not to sell out scruple to that scratch-and-sniff infotainment racket in which we posture in front of experience instead of [...]

love letters.

In blogging, friends, letters, personal, quote on 2 November 2008 with 58 comments

It’s strange reading your blog lately – you seem to be in such a different world, such a different state of mind than me. It’s kind of a nostalgic, vacationing vibe, like there’s infinite time to think about that tiny leaf on the end of a fern frond – no, not the littlest one at [...]

wait without hope

In philosophy, quote, writers on 23 October 2008 with 57 comments

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for [...]

my horoscope, good enough to share?

In found things, personal, quote on 22 October 2008 with 73 comments

As the stock markets came crashing down, a different kind of global devastation received scant notice. The World Conservation Congress revealed that 25 percent of the planet’s mammal species and one out of eight birds are on close to extinction. We’re not just talking about exotic animals in remote hideaways, but rabbits and deer and [...]

quote for change

In quote on 21 October 2008 with 13 comments

“It is precisely when the ground is pulled away and we plummet that we may suddenly sense a truth outside our normal way of seeing, and realize that the fixed values that used to be the whole story and formerly defined our own position are simply the objective correlative of a subjective stance that our [...]

goodbye to all that

In Uncategorized, neuva york, personal, philosophy, quote, writers on 8 October 2008 with 50 comments

I’ve recently met a new and interesting character, living quite literally on the other side of the world, over discussions about youth and city living. She directed me to Joan Didion’s essay “Goodbye to All That” which I’ve excerpted here, not the best or most striking portion but the part I related to the most. [...]

advice wasted on the young

In quote on 27 July 2008 with 7 comments

I remember I was in High School when the Baz Luhrmann video came about Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen.  It was one of those weird cheesy things thats great because of its truthfulness and its mass appeal. I watched the video again last night and it still brings a smile to my face (and a [...]