HOPKINS: You’ll find, as you get older, that you just want to weep.
PITT: Really?
HOPKINS: Yes. It’s not even about grief. It’s about the glory of life.
~ Anthony Hopkins / Interview
Anthony Hopkins on Prayer
HOPKINS: I once asked a Jesuit priest, “What is the shortest prayer in the world?” He said,“Fuck it.” It’s the prayer of release. Just say, “Fuck it.” None of it is important. The important thing is to enjoy life as it is. Your life today, it’s fantastic.
~ Anthony Hopkins / Interview
Julian Barnes on Entitlement
You should never underestimate what power and money, or the expectation of both, do to people and their sense of entitlement.
~ Julian Barnes / Interview, April 16th, 2020
Ottessa Moshfegh on ‘Dating’
We didn’t have a date. He came over and we were just together forever. I don’t know if I would have had the patience and strength to “date,” if it had come about another way.
~ Ottessa Moshfegh / Interview, April 21st, 2020
Lawrence Weiner on Art
Well, the popularity that’s necessary to get art put out into the world is really the same as it is for music. You first have to get a stage, or else nobody will know about it.
~ Lawrence Weiner / Interview, September 22nd 2020
William Shakespeare on Greed
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
~ William Shakespeare / Henry IV.
Emily St. John Mandel on Crims
“Now imagine how much wilder and stranger and more intense that would be if you and your colleagues were showing up at the office to perpetuate a massive crime . . . What story do you have to tell yourself, if you’re one of those people, to sleep at night? How do you convince yourself that it’s somehow OK?”
~ Emily St. John Mandel / FT, October 23rd 2020
Elizabeth Strout on Conscientiousness
I cleaned houses in my youth for a number of years and I always did a good job, because I was conscientious.
~ Elizabeth Strout / Guardian, 31st October 2020
Chuck D. on Doing
I’m at a stage where I know I’ve got more behind me than ahead of me. I have no time for worrying. You’ve got to get up and do things.
~ Chuck D. / Guardian, 31st October 2020
Catherine Wilson on Life
A life can be good in Epicurean terms, even if it does not involve achievements validated and rewarded by mainstream society, or great sacrifices and struggles against worldly temptations.
Wilson, Catherine.
The Pleasure Principle: Epicureanism: A Philosophy for Modern Living (p. 250). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Catherine Wilson on Life
Both excessive ambition and excessive self-sacrifice, [The Epicurean] believes, distort human life. We should neither strive for pre-eminence nor be driven into or choose slavish self-abnegation.
Wilson, Catherine.
The Pleasure Principle: Epicureanism: A Philosophy for Modern Living (pp. 248-249). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Epicurus on Enough
He who has learned the limits of life knows that it is easy to provide that which removes the feeling of pain owing to want and makes one’s whole life perfect. So there is no need for things which involve struggle.
~ Epicurus
Wilson, Catherine. The Pleasure Principle: Epicureanism: A Philosophy for Modern Living (p. 243). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Ice T on Other People
At some point you’ll realize, what they think, doesn’t matter.. Enjoy YOUR life, no matter what.
~ Ice T / Twitter
Catherine Wilson on Cars
Some people need to own a car, but for others it’s just a convention to have one, and those who have disburdened themselves of a car are no longer bothered by having to negotiate to buy them, or by maintaining, repairing, inspecting, licensing, refuelling and reselling them.
~ Wilson, Catherine. The Pleasure Principle: Epicureanism: A Philosophy for Modern Living (p. 88). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Catherine Wilson on Pain
Above all, resist superstition and the temptation to turn pain into moral virtue.
~ Wilson, Catherine. The Pleasure Principle: Epicureanism: A Philosophy for Modern Living (p. 87). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Wim Wenders on Art
“… You have to find what you can do better than anyone else and what you have in yourself that no-one else has.”
~ Wim Wenders / Louisiana Channel
Rachel Cusk on Work
“… so I think that discipline is a massive component of creating a body of work.”
~ Rachel Cusk / Louisiana Channel
Mario Vargas Llosa on Work
The only counsel that is acceptable is to work. To work very hard… until you discover the kind of writer you want to be.
Mario Vargas Llosa / Louisiana Channel
Rachel Cusk on Integrity
“…and so I would think you get a lot further by sticking to your guns… and not trying to second-guess what people want to read.”
~ Rachel Cusk / Louisiana Channel
John Prine on Humanity
Some humans ain’t human
Some people ain’t kind
You open up their hearts
And here’s what you’ll find
A few frozen pizzas
Some ice cubes with hair
A broken Popsicle
You don’t want to go there
Some people ain’t kind
You open up their hearts
And here’s what you’ll find
A few frozen pizzas
Some ice cubes with hair
A broken Popsicle
You don’t want to go there
Some humans ain’t human
Though they walk like we do
They live and they breathe
Just to turn the old screw
They screw you when you’re sleeping
They try to screw you blind
Some humans ain’t human
Some people ain’t kind
They live and they breathe
Just to turn the old screw
They screw you when you’re sleeping
They try to screw you blind
Some humans ain’t human
Some people ain’t kind
~ John Prine / Some Humans Ain’t Human
Tom Sachs on Work
Can you imagine getting paid really, really well to do something that you didn’t love to do? What a horrible curse that would be.
~ Tom Sachs / Louisiana Channel
Charles Bukowski on Art
Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do but most people don’t give a damn.
~ Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski on Trivialities
We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.
~ Charles Bukowski
Richard Ford on Sweating
“… but then I think well, you know, my wish as a writer… is to write masterpieces. Why shouldn’t I work that hard? Why should it be simple? … Why shouldn’t it take four years?… Art is heavy lifting… I don’t mind sweating.”
~ Richard Ford / Louisiana Channel
Louise Glück on Originality
“You have to live your life if you’re going to do original work. Your work will come out of an authentic life …”
~ Louise Glück
James Suzman on Busyness
People like to be busy. This is an absolute fundamental thing: we like to be skilled, we like to whittle, we like to carve.
~ James Suzman / Guardian, 4th October 2020
Jeanette Winterson on Respect
Take no notice of anyone you don’t respect.
~ Jeanette Winterson / Guardian, 20th February 2010
Albert Einstein on Knowledge
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
~ Albert Einstein
Frazey Ford on Error
“…You wait for me to fuck up, to find yourself some proof…”
Frazey Ford / Done
Hilary Mantel on Fun
Is there anything you know now about your career that you wish you knew when you started out?
That being a novelist is no fun, so it’s worth at least trying to be a playwright. Then again, fun isn’t high on my list; it’s more of a self-respect agenda. As Richard Ford said in the Guardian: “Don’t take any shit if you can possibly help it.”
~ Hilary Mantel / Guardian, 4th October 2020
Margaret Howell on Work
I hate a job half done. Even if it’s housework, you have to do a thorough job. I don’t have a dishwasher because I prefer to do it myself.
~ Margaret Howell / Guardian, 3rd October 2020
Ishiuchi Miyako on Life
We each have our own pains and wounds, which in my opinion are proof that we are still alive.