#notes

This is poetry, but it is not delicate and fragile, a placid ocean beneath a Bible vese on an inspirational poster. This poetry had testicles. It's rougher than a rodeo. Which is why the cliffs are crowded with spectators ↗

— N.D. Wilson

#inspirational

If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be immoral, everything would be permissible, even cannibalism. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#life

I'm still kind of a mess. But I think we all are. No one's got it all together. I don't think you ever do get it totally together. Probably if you did manage to do it you'd spontaneously combust. I think that's a law of nature. If you ever manage to become perfect, you have to die instantly before you ruin things for everyone else. ↗

— Michael Thomas Ford

#suicide-notes #nature

My God, but what do I care about the laws of nature and arithmetic if for some reason these laws and two times two is four are not to my liking? To be sure, I won't break through such a wall with my forehead if I really have not got strength to do it, but neither will I be reconciled with it simply because I have a stone wall here and have not got strength enough. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#notes-from-underground #nature

Most science fiction seemed to be written for people who already liked science fiction; I wanted to write stories for anyone, anywhere, living at any time in the history of the world. ↗

— Michael Chabon

#writing #science

I challenge you to find a more innocuous sentence containing the words sperm, suction, swallow, and any homophone of seaman. And then call me up on the homophone and read it to me. ↗

— Mary Roach

#humor #science #science

Trying to build myself up with the fact that I have done things right that were even good and have had moments that were excellent but the bad is heavier to carry around and feel have no confidence. ↗

— Marilyn Monroe

#fragments #intimate-notes #letters #marilyn-monroe #poems

I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born. ↗

— Charlie Parker

#chords #could #harmonic #heard #high

I still do not know where the notes will come from when I accept a commission for a new work. ↗

— Lukas Foss

#come #commission #i #know #new

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage. ↗

— Anne Tyler

#appearance #artificial #background #book #calculated