this last list is light...
quotes and facts I like
Hi!
In last year's dispatch during this week between holidays, Sacha taught me the British term for this in-between time: crimbo-limbo. Whatever we call it, in this liminal space before the new year I wanted to send something comforting.
Several months ago, I stumbled upon a pdf by Wes Del Val which contains 334 quotes by people he really likes and 152 facts that delight him. I read them all on a plane a few months ago and the following were my favorites from the 486. I’m sure if you read it in its entirety (and I hope you do) completely different ones would stick out to you (mine are below).
I noticed a few themes in the 44 I chose, such as nostalgia, regret, writing (particularly brevity), and ones that just made me laugh.
This list of quotes and facts that he likes inspired me to begin compiling a list of my own…or rather organize the disparate lists I already have that contain quotes, ideas, and facts, as well as write down the ones that live rent free in my brain.
I’m in the midst of making that collection and perhaps I will turn mine into a pdf the likes of Wes’ or I will share them here eventually or categorize them in some way. I also plan to start asking friends and family what facts and quotes are canon to them, and like I did with Wes’ pdf, choose my favorites of theirs and add them to mine.
Hope you are cozy wherever you are, perhaps getting some down time, or perhaps you’re working harder than usual, but I hope reading this is a break regardless.
Love,
KD
P.S. The artist is present the doctor will be present… Dr. Patti Kim is coming over to record on 1/1! So we’ll be kicking off the year with that episode so feel free to leave questions for us in the comments or submit here or record yourself asking here and we’ll play it on the episode!
MY PERSONAL FAVORITE FACTS AND QUOTES FROM WES DEL VAL’S PDF
Writer Gertrude Stein's definition of genius: somebody who knows who to be influenced by.
Marcel Duchamp told collector Peggy Guggenheim to just slice a few inches off a Jackson Pollock painting so it would fit into her apartment.
Montesquieu: Doing frivolous things seriously, and serious things frivolously.
Mark Twain: No word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
André Gide: With each book you write you should lose the admirers you gained with the previous one.
Jean-Luc Godard, filmmaker: What does art hope to accomplish? Everything. What can art do? Nothing. What does art do? Something.
Jazz icon Miles Davis would sometimes call Bill Evans and ask him to just set the handset down and leave the line open while Evans played piano at home.
Ben Marcus, writer: To me, writer's block is a sign that I probably ultimately don't give enough of a shit.
Thelonious Monk unhappy after a gig: I played the wrong wrong notes tonight.
Harmony Korine, artist/filmmaker: Middle America is where I came from. To me, it's the most interesting and left-out part of the US. America is not New York and Los Angeles.
2013: Tumblr to Yahoo for $1.1 billion. 2019: Tumblr to Automatic for $3 million.
La Monte Young, composer: Once I tried lots of mustard on a raw turnip. I liked it better than any Beethoven I had ever heard.
When asked why the show was called "Saturday Night," creator Lorne Michaels said, "So the network can remember when it's on."
Gore Vidal on John F. Kennedy meeting Tennessee Williams: Jack knew exactly how to flatter authors. Always say you admire their least successful work.
Glenn O’Brien: Every once in a while I’ll read something a painter has written, a real painter, and I’ll think, “I’m not painting for the same reason he shouldn’t be writing.”
When philosopher and chronic smoker Bertrand Russell's plane crashed in Norway in 1948, every person in the non-smoking section died while the smokers survived.
St. John of the Cross: My sole occupation is love.
Bill Evans on himself: A rather simple person with a limited talent and perhaps a limited perspective.
At the end of the 1980s a new Blockbuster Video store opened every 17 hours.
Writer James Baldwin on Fire Island denizens: I do not like people whose principal aim is pleasure.
Dolly Parton, country music icon and profound book donator: The magic with me is that I look completely false when I’m completely real!
The Eames rocker was designed for pregnant women and for decades Herman Miller, the company that produced the chairs, gave each of its pregnant employees one as a gift.
Haruki Murakami, writer: If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you only think what everyone else is thinking.
Activist artist Corita Kent wore Marimekko after she stopped wearing her nun’s habit.
Thomas Bernhard: To make oneself understood is impossible.
Erno Paasilinna, Finnish journalist and “national cynic laureate”: We are instructed in life by those whose company we should avoid.
Asking to join Oulipo, the French-speaking group of experimental writers and mathematicians, renders one permanently ineligible to join Oulipo.
Theodor Adorno & Max Horkheimer, philosophers: I do not believe that things will turn out well, but the idea that they might is of decisive importance.
→ Eugène Ionesco: Solitude seems to oppress me. And so does the company of other people.
→ Anonymous German editor: Inside every long book is a hidden, good, short book.
Martin Rees, scientist: It will be a long time before artificial intelligence is more dangerous than real stupidity.
A bibliophagist is a devourer of books.
Ornette Coleman, musician: I wasn’t so interested in being paid. I wanted to be heard. That’s why I’m broke.
Emil Cioran: Write books only if you are going to say in them the things you would never dare confide to anyone.
Chris Marker, writer/director: Nothing distinguishes memories from ordinary moments, only later do they make themselves known, from their scars.
George V. Higgins, crime writer: Writing is a hard game. No one asked you to start. No one will notice if you stop.
→ Anonymous: Seltzer tastes like when your foot falls asleep.
Daniel Van Kirk, comedian: America, where you only ever need half a flagpole.
Dean Kissick, cultural critic: Imaginative, creative minds should not be afraid of technological progress.
How writer Arthur C Clarke responded to exceptionally long and tedious letters:
Dear Sir, You may be right. Yours, Arthur C ClarkeWhen Larry Gagosian would visit Cy Twombly in Virginia they would always spend a couple of hours wandering the aisles of Walmart.
Thomas Bernhard: If we only associate with people of high character we very soon become dull.
Bob Nickas, art writer/curator: I believe art is made for no more than five or six people you know, and anyone else who gets something out of it, it’s just extra.
In December 1983, The Times (London) asked Samuel Beckett for his New Year's resolutions and hopes. He responded with a brief telegram: RESOLUTIONS COLON ZERO STOP PERIOD HOPES COLON ZERO STOP BECKETT.
^^^ RELATED
I feel the same way about resolutions as they imply we need to resolve, however with the collective momentum around personal growth that comes with this time of year… I am going to settle in and do the new year journaling process I do annually… many of you here have either done this with me in person or on the internet, so I hope you fire up the process again—it’s evergreen—and let me know if you have any questions as you go.
If you want to do it with me, it’s here for you. And if enough of you in LA want to do an in-person version, comment below, and if there are enough of us I’ll work on finding a space for us to make that happen.
A New Year’s Eve journaling prompt…
-What helps you stay on the side of believing in magic?
-How can you do those things more this year?
It’s inspired by my favorite part of one of my favorite movies, which I wrote about here…
If you want more prompts and the process I use, they are in this workshop that I’ve been teaching since 2014. It can be done at anytime and it also covers how to incorporate journaling into your ongoing routine consistently. More information here. Code: twentyfive for twenty-five percent off all kits!
In the meantime, here are a few more prompts from it to ponder…
← QUESTIONS:
-Who did you invest in this year? -Where do you feel most resourced? -Where do you feel most depleted?
→ QUESTIONS:
-Where do you want to move towards? -Who do you want to invest in more?
**If you want more of where this came from, try the workshop…sign up here
Happy New Year!!
Friend of the podcast Savala wrote this about New Year's resolutions. I particularly loved this part:
“Entering a new year with no dreams of newness. With no plan for fixing what’s wrong with you or attaining what’s been out of your reach. With nothing to slough off except the wish to fit in. With, instead, acceptance of the unacceptable.”
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Images: All stills from A Tale of Winter (it is one of my favorite Rohmer films, kinda Serendipity meets Before Sunset) except the image that’s obviously from Frances Ha.
Yes IN PERSON LA!!!
Yes also to in person ♥️ Thank you for your beautiful thoughtful entries you share with us.