Scholarship

"A las nueve o diez noches comprendió con alguna amargura que nada podía esperar de aquellos alumnos que aceptaban con pasivided su doctrina y sí de aquellos que arriesgaban, a veces, una contradicción razonable.  Los primeros, aunque dignos de amor y de buen afecto, no podían ascender a individuos; los últimos preexistían un poco más."
-Jorge Luis Borges, "Las ruinas circulares"

After nine or ten nights, he understood with a certain sorrow that he could expect nothing of those students who accepted his doctrine with passivity, but that he could from those who sometimes risked to contradict him reasonably.  The former, though worthy of love and affection, couldn't ascend to the level of individuals; the latter pre-existed a bit more.

Life on Mars?

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not.  In either case the idea is quite staggering."
-Arthur C. Clarke

finger food

Where I want to live

Somewhere where there are fireflies, there are mountains, and there is ocean.  I want my bathroom to have an open shower and a huge separate bathtub.  I want piles and piles of books and a pool.  And a breakfast room.  Somewhere where there are distinctive summers and winters - where it snows enough to play in.  Quiet, far away from neighbors (so that I can also be loud).  Maybe there will fruit trees in the kitchen.  Large windows.  A fireplace or wood stove.  A spiral staircase.  Large bed.  Lots of pillows.  A room with a nice desk and lots of bookshelves.  A record player.  Walking distance from a small town, driving distance from a big city.  A lawn that doesn't need mowing.  Tomatoes, eggplant, lettuce growing in the backyard.  Wild berries.  A very full wine rack.  Lots of art on the walls.  Walls painted bold colors.  A porch or deck or patio - probably a deck.  And fireflies.

"That is a nice short version, you wanna pick it up?"

"Was it too short?  Well, if I feel like my song is sung, I don't care if it's short.  And I feel like my song is sung."

-Johnny Cash, after singing "You are my Sunshine" on Cash Unearthed

If you have no Oscar Wilde, we won't Ezra Pound

"We need to make books cool again.  If you go home with somebody and they don't have good books, don't fuck them."
-John Waters

Overambitious and immeasurable

"Overambitious projects may be objectionable in many fields, but not in literature.  Literature remains alive only if we set ourselves immeasurable goals, far beyond all hope of achievement."
-Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the New Millennium

Working on my paper

Taking notes on Of Grammatology.

Dancing lessons

"Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God."
-Kurt Vonnegut

Well...

"Well, that's what we want.  We want people to shit themselves."
-Britt Daniel (of Spoon)