—WELL, THAT’S A BLEAK SUNRISE

  

… It’s really boring to be in a room with somebody who you agree with about everything. Who wants to be friends with somebody who’s just like you?” Anthony Bourdain

…“To sit alone or with a few friends, half-drunk under a full moon, you just understand how lucky you are; it’s a story you can’t tell. It’s a story you almost by definition, can’t share. I’ve learned in real time to look at those things and realize: I just had a really good moment.” Anthony Bourdain

  

…“Why do I read?

I just can't help myself.

I read to learn and to grow, to laugh

and to be motivated.

I read to understand things I've never

been exposed to.

I read when I'm crabby, when I've just

said monumentally dumb things to the

people I love.

I read for strength to help me when I

feel broken, discouraged, and afraid.

I read when I'm angry at the whole

world.

I read when everything is going right.

I read to find hope.

I read because I'm made up not just of

skin and bones, of sights, feelings,

and a deep need for chocolate, but I'm

also made up of words.

Words describe my thoughts and what's

hidden in my heart.

Words are alive--when I've found a

story that I love, I read it again and

again, like playing a favorite song

over and over.

Reading isn't passive--I enter the

story with the characters, breathe

their air, feel their frustrations,

scream at them to stop when they're

about to do something stupid, cry with

them, laugh with them.

Reading for me, is spending time with a

friend.

A book is a friend.

You can never have too many.”

--Gary Paulsen

 

…“Where does all of our love go, when we once held it beating in our hand?” Paul Lynch, Prophet Song”

 

“Panicking by yourself is the same as laughing alone in an empty room. You feel really silly.” Chuck Palahniuk

 

…“It's possible, in a poem or short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow those things—a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring—with immense, even startling power.” Raymond Carver

 

… When somebody's offering you food, they're telling you a story. They're telling you what they like, who they are. Presumably, it's a proud reflection of their culture, their history, often a very tough history. You turn your nose up at that important moment, the whole relationship changes, and it will never be the same.”

–Anthony Bourdain

 

…“Tell every terrible thing you’ve ever done, and let me love you anyway.” Edgar Allen Poe

 

…“The vacation gone wrong in Paris is almost always because people try to do too many things. Most of us are lucky to see Paris once in a lifetime. Please, make the most of it by doing as little as possible. Walk a little. Get lost a bit. Eat. Catch a breakfast buzz. Have a nap. Try and have sex if you can, just not with a mime. Eat again. Lounge around drinking coffee. Maybe read a book. Drink some wine. Eat. Repeat. See? It's easy.”

–Anthony Bourdain

 

… “Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.” Mary Oliver

 

…“In the end, we all become stories.” Margaret Atwood

 

…God only knows, where this thing could go.

 

… “The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.” Frank Lloyd Wright

 

…“To write is to be eaten. To read, to be full.”  Natalie Díaz

 

…Joan Kwon Glass

Garland-Eating Hungry Ghosts 食鬘鬼   摩羅婆叉

How many calories 

are there in a flower? 

If I tear a chain of marigolds 

into tiny pieces will I 

feel full faster?

Now that I’m dead

do carbs count 

less? How do I

decide how much 

to eat now 

that no one 

can see me?

How do I measure 

my progress when I weigh

less than an ounce?

How many flowers

equal one brownie

in fat grams?

Where does yellow go

when we have crushed

all of the petals

between our teeth?

 

…“Sometimes you risk everything for a life worth living, even if you're not the one that'll be alive to see it.”  Cherie Dimaline

 

…“We meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.” Kurt Vonnegut

 

…Ham on Rye, Chapter 37

 

“Then it was head to head, no boxing. 

His punches came hard and fast. 

He was more accurate, had more power, yet I was landing some hard shots too and it made me feel good. 

The more he hit me the less I felt. 

I had my gut sucked in, I liked the action. Then Gene and Dan were between us. 

They pulled us apart. 

"What’s wrong?" I asked. "Don't stop this thing! I can take him!"

"Cut the shit, Hank," said Gene. "Look at yourself."

--Charles Bukowski

 

…“Who wouldn’t travel, if they could? It’s unthinkable to me. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy different, new sensations, especially when the world is filled with so much great stuff? I like new things. I like to feel good. I like learning about stuff. It makes me happy. I like being wrong about stuff.” Anthony Bourdain