(Source: picadorbookroom)
"We are the very sensuality
of the time in which we come and go."
of the time in which we come and go."
— Ko Un, “Time With Dead Poets”
"And stop guarding that heart! (This is true for both writers and contestants on The Bachelor — it’s the only way to win. That, and being a sweet Southern girl with a killer bod.) Amy Hempel has quoted her teacher Gordon Lish as saying, “Wear your heart on the page, and people will read to find out how you solved being alive.” Amen, amen, amen."
— Ask the Writing Teacher: A Spork in the Road (via millionsmillions)
I read Easter Parade recently in one sitting. It was one of those books that grabs you from page one and doesn’t let you go until the end. It was incredibly dark, painful, and—book reviewers always use this word, but this is my first time feeling its merit—astonishing. I can’t say, though, that I thought it was about renewal. Transformation, yes, but not in the usual Easter sense.
Gilead is on my list of books I want to get to soon. It, along with the rest of Marilynne Robinson’s oevre, is sitting on my shelf glaring at me. READ ME, DAMMIT, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Well. I am waiting for a goodly sign, Marilynne. Be patient. I am ready to have my socks blown off, but first I want to be wooed. The best books always make me feel like I have read them at the only possible time.
Easter is winding down. The last painted eggs have been found in the elbows of oak trees and underneath benches. In honor of Easter, here are two books about renewal and transformation.
EASTER PARADERichard Yates’s classic novel is about how both women struggle to overcome their tarnished family’s past, and how both finally reach for some semblance of renewal.
In the luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames, Gilead reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary life.
"Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it."
— Tolstoy, A Confession (via bukarin)
(via russkayaliteratura)
"There is a difference between writing about yourself and about your personal life. Nowadays- not only in Turkey, but wherever I travel, mostly in Europe- young writers want to turn their lives into books, into novels, because they believe their lives are that important. Mostly I tell those kids who want to be writers that you have to have your own ideas. Of course, I myself am in my novels and books, but I strongly believe that you must distinguish between your life and your ideas."
— Buket Uzuner- PEN America Journal #15 (via penamerican)
(via millionsmillions)
"People don’t change as they age. They just become more elaborate."
— Russell Banks
"The strength of the fish is in the water."
— Proverb from Zimbabwe
"In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you."
— Buddhist Saying (via thatkindofwoman)
(Source: thelenaubr, via twobirdsonabranch)
