NITCH

Photo of Elsie de Wolfe

Elsie de Wolfe // "I am going to make everything around me beautiful. That will be my life."

Photo of James Baldwin

James Baldwin // "Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will now bring forth, one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed. Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long cherished or a privilege he has long possessed...that he is set free...for higher dreams, for greater privileges."

Photo of Patti Smith

Patti Smith // "I tell my kids...think of yourself like a captain, and you've got this little boat. And sometimes the weather's good, and you're just sailing, and sometimes big storms hit, and you know, you're in a stormy sea, but just ride it out, ride it out. Because it's good to be alive."

Photo of Lucia Berlin

Lucia Berlin // "What if our bodies were transparent, like a washing machine window? How wondrous to watch ourselves. Joggers would jog even harder, blood pumping away. Lovers would love more...Diets would improve, kiwi fruit and strawberries."

Photo of J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling // "Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it."

Photo of Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. // "May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership... Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause... A time like this demands great souls with pure hearts and ready hands... Leaders who will not lie. Leaders who can stand before the demagogue and damn his treacherous flatteries without winking... This is one of the great needs of the hour."

Photo of Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright // "We are no longer truly simple. We no longer live in simple terms or places. Life is a more complex struggle now. It is now valiant to be simple; a courageous thing to even want to be simple. It is a spiritual thing to comprehend what simplicity means."

Photo of Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson // "I don't want to be a product of my environment; I want my environment to be a product of me."

Photo of George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw // "I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want...and if they can't find them...make them."

Photo of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe // "Invisible things are the only realities."

Photo of Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves // "Nothing ever truly dies. The universe wastes nothing, everything is simply transformed."

Photo of Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe // "I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught."