121. IT ...

121.

It was that moment before the lamps go on,

when the atmosphere has that exciting blue

clarity of the nocturnal scenes in old silent films, 

a colour of water that holds a few drops of ink.

{Tennessee Williams, The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone}

120. OFTEN ...

120.

Often she found herself sitting and looking,

sitting and looking, with her work in her hands

until she became the thing she looked at –

that light for example.

{Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse}

119. A ...

119.

A variety of birds, multi-coloured, have acquired a

phony imperturbable air of, "I don't give a shit,

mate, but that worm and that crust of bread you've

chucked on the lawn, is MINE!"

{Hone Tuwhare, Caretaker's report from Tomarata Estate}

118. HOW ...

118.

How wonderful are your gracious wonders!
All we can do is be amazed and stammer and fall silent
Because intellect and words fail.

{Edith Stein, I Will Remain With You}

117. I'M ...

117.

I'm hungry, always hungry, 

a man should not be hungry,

so I'll have to become a dog– 

but how?

{Vladimir Slepian, Fils de Chien}

116. THAT ...

116.

That wonderful creature–she became fluid;

she became light; she became every colour

and flame, and finally she resolved into 

miraculous spirals of flames wafted

towards the Infinite. 

{Isadora Duncan, My Life}

115. WE'RE ...

115.

We're given a final warning

today after a long time talking;

and in the mist of the morning

my love and I go walking.

{Sam Hunt, A Long Time}

114. JUST ...

114.

Just around every corner lay something curious

and interesting, something I had never before

seen or done or known about.

{Joan Didion, Goodbye To All That}

113. AND ...

113.

And so, with the ruin of all my hopes,

I sat there up in the tree throughout

the hours of darkness like a night-owl.

{Joseph Von Eichendorff, Life of a Good-for-Nothing}

112. IN ...

112.

In a sudsy dream I floated off, 

unknitting, unknotting, unraveling. 

{Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado}

111. WORDS ...

111.

Words referring to things outside of her experience

were a foreign language to her, and meaningless.

{Mark Twain, The Diary of Adam and Eve}

110. ONLY ...

110.

Only the bookshelves gave me a sense of her.

{Banana Yoshimoto, N.P.}

109. MAYBE ...

109.

Maybe growing a moustache, did you say,

with an adorable look of amuzement?

{James Joyce, Finnegans Wake}

108. THE ...

108.

The day empties its images

like a cup or a room.

{Sylvia Plath, Parliament Hill Fields}

107. STILL ...

107.

Still today I am only counting on what comes of my
own openness, my eagerness to wander in search of everything, 
which, I am confident, keeps me in mysterious communication with 
other open beings, as if we were suddenly called to assemble.

{André Breton, L'Amour Fou}

106. WE ...

106.

We lack words, and we have to many of them.

{Susan Sontag, The Aesthetics of Silence}

105. AND ...

105.

And then, abruptly, the sky went black.

{Milan Kundera, Ignorance}

104. NOWADAYS ...

104.

Nowadays it often seems writing is

nothing at all.

{Marguerite Duras, The Lover}

103. THOUGH ...

103.

Though my senses were sinking into oblivion,

they seemed to expand ere they reached it.

{E.M. Forster, The Other Side Of The Hedge}

102. SHE ...

102.

She woke, she opened her eyes but did not move -

did not move a finger.

{Katherine Mansfield, Vol.2: Notebook 38}

101. ONCE ...

101.

Once again the light splits 
as it traverses imagination's prism,
and I submit to this iridescent universe.

{Louis Aragon, Paris Peasant}

100. IF ...

100.

If you please, no reference to examples in books.

{Jane Austen, Persuasion}

99. WHAT ...

99.

What is this quality of 'firstness'?

{John Berger, G}

98. I ...

98.

I lost you in the crowd

in an unfamiliar town

they found your bag in the river

where hardly no one goes.

{Victoria Bergsman, To Lose Someone}

97. CITIES ...

97.

Cities also believe they are the work of the mind

or of chance, but neither the one nor the other

suffices to hold up their walls.

{Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities}

96. HERE ...

96.

Here is my voice:
This empty shell
The shadow of a sound
Preserving its own lament…

{Cecília Meireles, Introduction}

95. ENGULFMENT ...

95.

Engulfment is a moment of hypnosis.

{Roland Barthes, A Lover's Discourse - Fragments}

94. PERHAPS ...

94.

Perhaps the boy would be sent to jail for lying to me.

{Miranda July, The Boy From Lam Kien}

93. HE ...

93.

He quoted Wittgenstein's advice on keeping silent

when understanding is beyond us.

{Vincent O'Sullivan, Still Life}

92. I ...

92.

I found I could say things with color and shapes

that I couldn't say any other way – 

things I had no words for.

{Georgia O'Keeffe}