Friday, December 20, 2013
It comes to this: the use of a man, by himself and thus by others, lies in how he conceives his relation to nature, that force to which he owes his somewhat small existence. If he sprawl, he shall find little to sing but himself, and shall sing, nature has such paradoxical ways, by way of artificial forms outside himself. But if he stays inside himself, if he is contained within his nature as he is participant in the larger force, he will be able to listen, and his hearing through himself will give him secrets objects share. And by an inverse law his shapes will make their own way. It is in this sense that the projective act, which is the artist’s act in the larger field of objects, leads to dimensions larger than the man. For a man’s problem, the moment he takes speech up in all its fullness, is to give his work his seriousness, a seriousness sufficient to cause the thing he makes to try to take its place alongside the things of nature. This is not easy. Nature works from reference, even in her destructions (species go down with a crash). But breath is man’s special qualification as animal. Sound is a dimension he has extended. Language is one of his proudest acts. And when a poet rests in these as they are in himself (in his physiology, if you like, but the life in him, for all that) then he, if he chooses to speak from these roots, works in that area where nature has given him size, projective size.
— Charles Olson, “Projective Verse”
Thursday, December 19, 2013
In everyday situations, I will simply assume that doing what is right is in my interests; and once I have decided what is right, I will go ahead and do it, without thinking about further reasons for doing what is right.
— Peter Singer, Practical Ethics
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
I know more than I need to.
— GHB
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Y'all are amateurs. I can tell.
— Ms. Pat
Monday, December 16, 2013
If you go north on the earth, you eventually go south, but if you go west, you never stop going west.
— Akshay
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Cold be heart and hand and bone.
— Gollum, Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Alpha, step.
Omega, step.
Kappa, step.
Sigma, step.
— Kanye West, “School Spirit”
Friday, December 13, 2013
Like Jonny Quest and Hadji!
— Myron, Jingle All The Way
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Pretty freakin cool.
— John Hunter
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
And that is a profound difference between the sciences and the arts.
— Alan Lightman, “Yellow Fluff and Other Curious Encounters,” Radiolab
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Art is a proposition.
— Joe Scanlan
Monday, December 9, 2013
I’m now the proud owner of a jigsaw.
— Jessie
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Toe to toe.
— alt-J, “Breezeblocks”
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Turn it up? That’s such a dad thing.
— Jose
Friday, December 6, 2013
There’s a human soul trapped in my couch.
— Nick
Thursday, December 5, 2013
He kept saying things like, ‘You’ve got to paint me on the jump.’
— Harold Holzer, “The Interminable, Everlasting Lincolns (Part 1)”
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
And what’s amazing — when Lincoln was standing there, there were light waves shooting out at 186,000 miles per second, hitting that collodion plate — that emulsion was made directly from him. I mean, that’s incredible.
— Keya Morgan, “The Interminable, Everlasting Lincolns (Part 2)”
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
And just listen to yourself, as usual, as you speak.
— Paul Muldoon
Monday, December 2, 2013
Good architecture should always be applauded.
— Kracklite, The Belly of an Architect
Sunday, December 1, 2013
White must be whiter than white, and to achieve that, colour must be added.
— David Batchelor, Chromophobia
