—SOMETIMES IT TAKES THAT LONG TO GET A SONG RIGHT 

 

  

…“I realized early in my adult life that talking—real, honest, substantive conversation—could be superhot, and it didn’t have to result in anybody taking their clothes off for it to be erotic in a lasting way. Very often a good conversation is more memorable than f*^king.” --Lucinda Williams

 

…When things go south, I always have you.

 

…“Would you like a hug?” is probably the best thing you can ever be asked.

 

…Finland was again rated the happiest country in the world.  I need to go there. I need to learn sisu.

 

…I’ve got this book entitled “Be Calm” staring me right in the eyes, like right here on my desk, yet I’m anything but that.

 

…Last night, I dreamt I lost Lucy again. It’s horrible when dreams become reality.

 

…I know I come across as a sad sack, or a sad clown, as my son calls himself, but I’m happy much of the time. And always, I’m grateful for everything.

 

…If you could know when you were going to die, would you want to know? I think I would. I’m ready for that answer.

 

...The only thing up at 3 am is me, the wind and the swaying evergreens, though you can only hear them through the panes. 

 

…If I could have one superpower, it would be to melt down all the guns in the world.

 

…Once you get a taste of heaven, it’s hard to want anything else.

 

…Time keeps on slipping into the future, and that’s okay because that’s how life works, right?

 

…“Silence has the largest ear.” Lan Lan

 

…I’m always going to root for the underdog, and I hope you do, too.

 

…Come Monday, it’ll be all right.

 

…I’ve had to do a lot of ruminating on the notion of privilege. To be honest, at first, I didn’t quite get it. I thought, if you worked really hard and happened to gain from that, it was rightfully yours. But now I understand it more clearly. Do I need to remind myself how privileged I am? Oh, yeah, all the time. 

 

…I’ve seen so much rain. What a lucky F*^k I am, right?

 

…Blogspot now has censors. Some of my posts come with warnings or they’re not posted at all because of the word choice I’ve employed.

Every single day, I’m astounded by how puritanical America has become. Ban books but buy as many guns as you want? I mean, WTFF?

 

…I’ll just keep on missing, and I’ll be true to that.

 

…No matter what anyone says, today’s country music is really just 70’s pop. Thank God for that.

 

…What I often wonder: How am I still alive, and John’s not? 

 

…Everybody has a tipping point.

 

…Striated, still, and more.

 

…For some reason, my mother became a huge Mariner fan late in life. I never even liked baseball. But now I’m an M’s fan. What that means is something I should take to my therapist.

 

…Blonde or gray? I’ll believe whatever you say.

 

“He wrote me: ‘I will have spent my life trying to understand the function of remembering, which is not the opposite of forgetting, but rather its lining.” Chris Marker

 

….Walt: I thought you were afraid of heights.

Travis: I’m not afraid of heights. I’m afraid of fallin’. Paris, Texas

 

…”Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.” - Rumi

 

… “It Was Like This: You Were Happy”

 

It doesn’t matter what they will make of you

or your days: they will be wrong,

they will miss the wrong woman, miss the wrong man,

all the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention.

Your story was this: you were happy, then you were sad,

you slept, you awakened.

Sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.” 

– Jane Hirshfield

 

…“When you hit a wall – of your own imagined limitations – just kick it in.” Sam Shepard

 

“True love can never be described in words nor can the depth of love ever be expressed. True love is something beyond our understanding, it is difficult to explain and understand, but we can definitely talk about what love is not. When we say we love somebody we become jealous, we don’t want to share. we become possessive, these are negative traits and this is not love.

Love is something that elevates you, love is something that takes you beyond the physical, it is something that opens yourself up and you can only experience a certain aspect of that love when you yourself completely open up.” -Krishnamurti

 

…“You have to know how to look even when you don’t know what you’re looking for.” Roberto Bolano

 

…“You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you." James Baldwin

 

…"I wrote to Picasso once: I did not receive a reply. I saw Picasso at a party or an opening or something crowded and awful in New York. I spoke to him. I repeated what I had written in my letter: How do we do it? What do we do when the images and the words do not come forth? How do we survive? How do we remain artists? He looked at me with those glorious eyes, snapped back that shiny, bald head and told me that we are not artists; we do not concern ourselves with 'art.' We are workmen, day laborers--who happen to work with paints and clay and actors, and curtains part on occasion to display what we do. Tell the truth, he said. As you know it. Art may happen; it may not. We are not owed its presence. His point was made." --Tennessee Williams interview with James Grissom, 1982

 

…“In Los Angeles, you can get by without your honor, but not without your car.” Pauline Kael

 

…"The only safe thing is to take a chance."  Elaine May

 

…“That’s what’s so gorgeous about humanity. It doesn’t matter how bleak our daily lives are, we still fight for the light. I think that’s our divinity. We lean into love, even in the most hideous circumstances. We manage to hope.”--Mary Karr

 

…“I wasn’t arrogant or confident. I was desperate. I had to succeed at acting because nothing else was possible.” Marlon Brando

 

…“I think it is all a matter of love; the more you love a memory the stronger and stranger it becomes.” Vladimir Nabokov

 

…"Certainly, after Michael’s death it became clear that I wouldn’t kill myself to save my life. At that point I realized that the main thing a parent has to do is stay alive. It doesn’t matter how rotten you are, or if you fail. A failed parent is better than a dead parent. A failed parent at least gives you someone to rail against. A former army psychiatrist said something that struck me. He said that there are people who will kill themselves no matter what, and there are people who won’t do it no matter what. There are people who can go through an endless level of psychological pain, and still they will not kill themselves. I want to be that last person."--Louise Erdrich