The very first thing that a writer has to face is that he can not be told what to write. Nobody asked me to be a writer. I chose to be a writer. The one thing you have to do is try to tell the truth. In order to do it, when the book comes… Continue reading The artist is not free to do what he wants to do
Category: Quotes
The Life You Give: Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin *April 1 1755
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, born Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, on April 1, 1755, in Belley, France, was lawyer, politician, [judge, violinist}, and author of a celebrated work on gastronomy, Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste).Brillat-Savarin followed the family profession of law. A deputy of the Third Estate at the Estates-General of 1789, he was forced to flee the… Continue reading The Life You Give: Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin *April 1 1755
Johann Sebastian Bach, and the beginnings of a musical family
A pretty noise they must have made together! However, he learnt to keep time, and this apparently was the beginning of music in our family.”Johann Sebastian Bach, referring to his great-great-grandfather Veit Bach, a Lutheran baker who used to take his cittern to the mill, and play it while the mill was grinding. (Source: Britannica)
From Flower to Flower
The world around you is beautiful because that's how you see it. And your vision is transmitted to others. Lilium candidum Linnaeus
“It is not your paintings I like, it is your painting.”*
My father, lovingly, forced me to think but I am not a philosopher. During my upbringing I was taught to trust, believe. I do but filled with questions because I believe in the intellect which dwells on beauty and the ugly alike — perhaps the fruit of thinking. I surrender increasingly to the vibrancy of… Continue reading “It is not your paintings I like, it is your painting.”*
Jorge Luis Borges walking
I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn't expect to arriveJorge Luis Borges, born on August 24 1899
Repetition, according to Karlheinz Stockhausen
Repetition is based on body rhythms, so we identify with the heartbeat, or with walking, or with breathing.Karlheinz Stockhausen — German composer, born August 22 1928
In the words of Theodor W. Adorno
Intelligence is a moral category.Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) — thinker on social theory, aesthetics, musicology, epistemology
“Accidents will happen” (Elvis Costello)
Cigar falling from a whiskey glass
Madiba on Language
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.Nelson Mandela — born on a day like today, July 18 1918
Some Madiba Words
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”Nelson Mandela, born on July 18… Continue reading Some Madiba Words
In her no longer singing words
I miss singing every day. I can't sing anymore. My voice doesn't work. I have Parkinson's disease, and it sometimes takes my words away from me.Linda Ronstadt— born this day in 1946
Frida, in words
“I don't paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.” “They are so damn 'intellectual' and rotten that I can't stand them anymore....I [would] rather sit on the floor in the market of Toluca and sell tortillas, than have anything to do with those 'artistic' bitches of Paris.” “I wish I could do whatever… Continue reading Frida, in words
Saffron
Song of Solomon (4) 13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, 14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon…
Listening while relaying a message
The musician on stage is a hearing conglomerate. He has to listen to himself, perceive what he plays, and react to it. At the same time, he has to anticipate his playing and overlook the complete piece. Simultaneously, he plays for the listeners in the tenth or twenty-third row, and listens, as it were, with… Continue reading Listening while relaying a message
Hedonistic Pleasure
He is the true conqueror of pleasure, who can make use of it without being carried away by it, not he who abstains from it altogether.Aristippus of Cyrene (c. 435 – c. 356 BC)
Prolonging Transcendental States
“Transcendent states are often desperately short-lived: a few moments late at night or at dusk; on a plane or train journey across wide open country. But we can, through certain ingredients (especially lavender, cardamom, turmeric, and cinnamon), access them a little more systematically and thereby loosen the grip of our insistent egos.”In “Thinking & Eating”,… Continue reading Prolonging Transcendental States
On Taste
On a superficial view, we may seem to differ very widely from each other in our reasonings, and no less in our pleasures: but notwithstanding this difference, which I think to be rather apparent than real, it is probable that the standard both of reason and Taste is the same in all human creatures. For… Continue reading On Taste
Handmade
People who are unable to use their hands skillfully for all kinds of work, will not become good thinkers and will behave awkwardly in life. It is not the head alone, but the whole human being that is a logician. Activities demanding manual and bodily skill, such as knitting, leads to the enhancement of the… Continue reading Handmade
Imaginative, True, Responsible Human
Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives. The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibility— these three forces are the very nerve of educationRudolf Steiner (27 February 1861 - 30 March 1925)
to be Louise Bourgeois
It is not so much where my motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive.Louise Bourgeois 1911-2010 I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands...Louise Bourgeois One must accept the fact that others don’t see what you do.Louise Bourgeois
Sila Blume 