Monday, April 30, 2012

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}

Sunday, April 29, 2012

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}

Saturday, April 28, 2012

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}

Friday, April 27, 2012

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}

Thursday, April 26, 2012

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}

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

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}

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

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}

Monday, April 23, 2012

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}

Sunday, April 22, 2012

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}

Saturday, April 21, 2012

112. IN ...

112.
In a sudsy dream I floated off, 
unknitting, unknotting, unraveling. 

{Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado}

Friday, April 20, 2012

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}

Thursday, April 19, 2012

110. ONLY ...


110.
Only the bookshelves gave me a sense of her.

{Banana Yoshimoto, N.P.}

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

109. MAYBE ...

109.
Maybe growing a moustache, did you say,
with an adorable look of amuzement?

{James Joyce, Finnegans Wake}

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

108. THE ...

108.
The day empties its images
like a cup or a room.

{Sylvia Plath, Parliament Hill Fields}

Monday, April 16, 2012

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}

Sunday, April 15, 2012

106. WE ...

106.
We lack words, and we have to many of them.

{Susan Sontag, The Aesthetics of Silence}

Saturday, April 14, 2012

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}

Thursday, April 12, 2012

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}

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

102. SHE ...

102.
She woke, she opened her eyes but did not move -
did not move a finger.

{Katherine Mansfield, Vol.2: Notebook 38}

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

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}

Monday, April 9, 2012

100. IF ...

100.
If you please, no reference to examples in books.

{Jane Austen, Persuasion}

Sunday, April 8, 2012

99. WHAT ...

99.
What is this quality of 'firstness'?

{John Berger, G}

Saturday, April 7, 2012

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}

Friday, April 6, 2012

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}


Thursday, April 5, 2012

96. HERE ...

96.
Here is my voice:
This empty shell
The shadow of a sound
Preserving its own lament…

{Cecília Meireles, Introduction}

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

95. ENGULFMENT ...

95.
Engulfment is a moment of hypnosis.

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

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

94. PERHAPS ...

94.
Perhaps the boy would be sent to jail for lying to me.

{Miranda July, The Boy From Lam Kien}

Monday, April 2, 2012

93. HE ...

93.
He quoted Wittgenstein's advice on keeping silent
when understanding is beyond us.

{Vincent O'Sullivan, Still Life}

Sunday, April 1, 2012

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}