on art

“Most of the things I’ve got right over the years, I got right because I’d got them wrong first. It’s how we make art.”

~Neil Gaiman, in one of the nonfiction writings found in “The View From the Cheap Seats”

on perspective

“It is a small world. You do not have to live in it particularly long to learn that for yourself. There is a theory that, in the whole world, there are only five hundred real people (the cast, as it were; all the rest of the people in the world, the theory suggests, are extra) and what is more, they all know each other. And it’s true, or true as far as it goes. In reality the world is made of thousands upon thousands of groups of about five hundred people, all of whom will spend their lives bumping into each other, trying to avoid each other, and discovering each other in the same unlikely teashop in Vancouver. There is an unavoidability to this process. It’s not even coincidence. It’s just the way the world works, with no regard for individuals or for propriety.”

~Neil Gaiman, “Anansi Boys”

on creativity

“A perfect studio has always told me that the person is afraid of his own mind and is reflecting in his outward space an inward need for control. Creativity is just the opposite: it is a loss of control.”

~Natalie Goldberg, “Writing Down the Bones”

on loneliness and the importance of books

“I read Catcher in the Rye for the first time and knew what it was like to have someone speak for me, to close a book with a sense of both triumph and relief, one lonely isolated social animal finally finally making contact.”

~Anne Lamott, “Bird by Bird”

on relatable things

“‘People are screwed up in this world. I’d rather be with someone screwed up and open about it than somebody perfect and . . . you know . . . ready to explode.'”

~Ned Vizzini, “It’s Kind of a Funny Story”

on anxiety, pt. 2

“‘Mr. Gilner.’ Dr. Mahmoud puts a hand on my shoulder. “You have a chemical imbalance, that is all. If you were a diabetic, would you be ashamed of where you were?’

‘No, but–‘

‘If you had to take insulin and you stopped, and you were taken to the hospital, wouldn’t that make sense?'”

. . .

“I sigh. ‘I don’t know how much of it is really chemical. Sometimes I just think depression’s one way of coping with the world. Like, some people get drunk, some people do drugs, some people get depressed. Because there’s so much stuff out there that you have to do something to deal with it.'”

~Ned Vizzini, “It’s Kind of a Funny Story”

{This is another book that I highly recommend. As someone who struggles with general anxiety, I found this book to be very encouraging–it was one of the things that helped me decide to seek professional help.}

on other people, pt. 4

“‘He’s been through worse.’

‘It’s different for everyone,’ she says. ‘Not better or worse.'”

~A.S. King, “I Crawl Through It”

on other people, pt. 3

“He says, ‘Is that blood real?’

Stanzi’s parents answer, ‘No blood is real unless someone cares.” ~A.S. King, “I Crawl Through It”

 

 

on other people, pt. 2

“People can be mirrors for other people. It happens all the time. Probably more than it should.” ~A.S. King, “I Crawl Through It”

on other people

“Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.” ~Neil Gaiman, in one of his nonfiction pieces found in “The View From the Cheap Seats.”

{I will be posting a lot of Gaiman’s quotes because he writes a lot and I read his books a lot and also he’s kinda the best.}