February 2012
39 posts
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Neil Gaiman: On Writing. (A bit long. Sorry.) →
neil-gaiman:
I got up this morning, and read the thirty or so questions that people had left in the last 8 hours. And apart from the few that wanted to tell me that, honestly, there’s nothing in the whole world like a photo of a gentleman holding a small yellow chainsaw, most of the rest of them were writing…
traumahead asked: thank you for posting last argument of kings this is one of my favorite series. I haven't met many people who have read this series
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“We spoke all night in tongues,
in fingertips, in teeth.”
–
Robert Hass, from “Spring”
(via the-final-sentence)
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This job was swallowing her up. She wanted to come home every night to freshly mixed fruit salad and theatre tickets and sex.
— Perdido Street Station, China Miéville
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“When we belong to the world
we become what we are.”
– Anne Stevenson, from “Poem for a Daughter” (via the-final-sentence)
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He was utterly in the throes of a new project. Lin felt a familiar melancholy affection for him. Melancholy at his self-sufficiency in these moments of fascination; affection for his fervour and passion.
— Perdido Street Station, China Miéville
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Truth, though, is nothing in the face of self-falsehood, and principles are of no value if the idealist cannot live up to his own standards.
—Homeland, R. A. Salvatore
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Do you know what’s worse than a villain? A villain who thinks he’s a hero. A man like that, there’s nothing he won’t do, and he’ll always find himself an excuse.
—Last Argument of Kings, Joe Abercrombie
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“You fool! We could have been free!”
“No. We couldn’t. And freedom is far overrated in any case. We all have our responsibilities. We all owe something to someone. Only the entirely worthless are entirely free. The worthless and the dead.”
—Last Argument of Kings, Joe Abercrombie
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“Please. Friends are people one pretends to like in order to make life bearable. Men like us have no need of such indulgences. It is our enemies by which we are measured.”
—Last Argument of Kings, Joe Abercrombie
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He remembered the sour-sweet smell of her, the strength of her hands, the shape of her frown in the firelight. He remembered the warmth of her, pressed up close to him in the night. He knew there had been something good between them, even if all the words they had said had been hard. Some people don’t have soft words in them, however much they try. He didn’t hold much hope, of course. A man like...
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Hating a Man
You can have enemies you never really meet, Logen had plenty. You can kill men you don’t know, he’d done it often. But you can’t truly hate a man without loving him first, and there’s always a trace of that love left over.
—Last Argument of Kings, Joe Abercrombie
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“We are truly meant to be here.”
– Paul Davies, The Mind of God (thank you, disassociate)
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“Life,” Barris said, as if to himself, ” is the only heavy and none else; there is only the one trip, all heavy. Heavy that leads to the grave. For everyone and everything.”
— A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick
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“Don’t cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter...”
– E. E. Cummings, from “since feeling is first” (via the-final-sentence)
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Invitation difficult to resist
“A gentle kidnapping is still a kidnapping, though, don’t you find?”
“Kidnapping is such an ugly word. Why don’t we think of it as an invitation difficult to resist? At least I let you keep your clothes, no?”
—Last Argument of Kings, Joe Abercrombie
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“[Can you imagine her eyes in that moment, as she asked
her mother to take her...”
– Jason Schneiderman, from “Sita” (via loveandzombies)
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Pains cures everything
“But the High Justice…” he whispered. “Have you no pity?”
Glokta could only shrug. “I did have. As a boy I was soft-hearted beyond the point of foolishness. I swear, I would cry at a fly caught in a spider’s web.” He grimaced at a brutal spasm through his leg as he turned for the door. “Constant pain has cured me of that.”
—Last Argument of the Kings, Joe Abercrombie
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“[Only music keeps us here,
each by all the others held.
In the hold of hands...”
– Wendell Berry, from “The Circles of Our Lives” (via the-final-sentence)
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“Make it spring.”
– Margaret Atwood, from “February” (via words-in-lines)
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Integrity
“But it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it’s all we have left in this place.”
“It is the very inch of us”
“…But within that inch we are free”
—V for Vendetta, Alan Moore & David LLoyd
PS: Valerie’s letter was my favorite part of this book.
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Risk
“Everything is a risk, Jack. Everything.” The herbalist’s voice has lost all of its country accent. “Walk to the market and there’s a risk you will be robbed, run over, or stabbed. Marry a girl and there’s a risk she’ll die in childbirth. Believe in god and there’s a risk you’ll find nothing but darkness on the other side.”
“Trust...
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“And so I finally arrived, although in a roundabout fashion, back in the kitchen...”
– Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, The New Melusine (thanks, asimplethinker)
“We look forward to getting you back.”
– Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (thanks, visualityofandrew)
“[You have to let things
Be as they are.]
Who knows which of us
Deserves the...”
– Robert Bly, from “What Things Want” (via the-final-sentence)
“[Come slow.]
And look me again in the eyes
as you do.”
– Liz Waldner, from “Photo (Op/tative) Synthesis” (via the-final-sentence)
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Reblog so people know who you are.
Tumblr Name: readloveshare
Nickname(s): Soan
Birthday: Dec 17
Relationship Status: Single, but forever mingling
Random fact about you: I can go months not buying any clothes or shoes, but cannot resist books and random knick-knacks
Hobbies/Interests: Reading, Photography, Embroidery, Traveling.
Do you smoke/drink: From time to time
Why Tumblr?: Easy way to share all the stuff I read in...
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Maybe we shouldn’t meet again. Tengo stared up at the ceiling. Wasn’t it better if they kept this desire to see each other hidden within them, and never actually got together? That way, there would always be hope in their hearts. That hope would be a small, yet vital flame that warmed them to their core-a tiny flame to cup one’s hands around and protect from the wind, a flame tat...
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“And to come to that—
isn’t it too bad, to be despised
for what you do to prove...”
– Tess Gallagher, from “Conversation with a Fireman from Brooklyn” (via the-final-sentence)
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Hope
This is what it means to live on. When granted hope, a person uses it as fuel, as a guidepost to life. It is impossible to live without hope.
—1Q84, Haruki Murakami
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“Where there is light, there must be shadow, and where there is shadow there must be light. There is no shadow without light and no light without shadow. Karl Jung said this about ‘the Shadow’ in one of his books: ‘It is as evil as we are positive…the more desperately we try to be good and wonderful and perfect, the more the Shadow develops a definite will to be black...
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“In this world, there is no absolute good, no absolute evil,” the man said.
“Good and evil are not fixed, stable entities but are continually trading places. A good may be transformed into an evil in the next second. and vice versa. Such was the way if the world that Dostoevsky depicted in The Brothers Karamazov. The most important thing is to maintain the balance between the...
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What is Truth?
“Most people are not looking for provable truths. As you said, truth is often accompanied by intense pain, and almost no one is looking for painful truths. What people need is beautiful, comforting stories that make them feel as if their lives have some meaning. Which is where religion comes from.”
The man turned his neck several times before continuing.
“If a certain...
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“I’m tired of living in hatred and resentment. I’m tired of living unable to love anyone. I don’t have a single friend-not one. And, worst of all, I can’t even love myself? Why is that? Why can’t I love myself? It’s because I can’t love anyone else. A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else....
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Luck
“I’d like to wish you luck, but I’m afraid a good luck wish from me won’t do any good,” Tamaru said.
“Because you don’t believe in luck.”
“Even if I wanted to, I don’t know what it’s like,” Tamaru said. ” I’ve never seen it.”
—1Q84, Haruki Murakami
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Tibetan Wheel of the Passions
“And it doesn’t destroy the love you have inside you.”
Aomame said, “It’s like the Tibetan Wheel of the Passions. As the wheel turns, the values and feelings on the outer rim rise and fall, shining or sinking into darkness. But true love stay fastened to the axle and doesn’t move. “
—1Q84, Haruki Murakami
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“It’s like some historic massacre.”
“Massacre?”
“The ones who did it can always rationalize their actions and even forget what they did. They can turn away from things they don’t want to see. But surviving victims can never forget. They can’t turn away. Their memories are passed on from parent to child. That’s what the world is, after all: an...
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“I ask him if it’s unusual to be sad, as we are. He says it’s because we’ve made...”
– Marguerite Duras from the novel A Lover (via kathleenjoy)
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Love
If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life. Even if you can’t get together with that person.
—1Q84, Haruki Murakami
January 2012
27 posts
1 tag
“After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.”
– Jeffrey McDaniel, “The Quiet World” (adapted from gammasandgerunds)
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Why write?
Tengo said, “When I’m writing a story, I use words to transform the surrounding scene into something more natural for me. In other words, I reconstruct it. That way, I can confirm without a doubt that this person known as ‘me’ exists in the world. This is a totally different process from steeping myself in the world of math.”
“You confirm that you exist,”...