Gil Scott-Heron // "The revolution that goes on in your head, nobody will ever see that."
James Baldwin // "I left this country for one reason only, one reason. I didn’t care where I went...I ended up on the streets of Paris with $40 in my pocket on the theory that nothing worse could happen to me there than what had already happened to me here. You talk about making it as a writer by yourself, you had to be able then to turn off all the antenna with which you live because once you turn your back on this society, you may die. You may die. And it’s very hard to sit at a typewriter and concentrate on that if you’re afraid of the world around you. The years I lived in Paris did one thing for me, they released me from that particular social terror which was not the paranoia of my own mind, but a real social danger visible in the face of every cop, every boss, everybody... I don’t know what most white people in this country feel, but I can only conclude what they feel from the state of their institutions... You want me to make an act of faith risking myself, my wife, my woman, my sister, my children on some idealism which you assure me exists in America which I have never seen."
J.D. Salinger // "Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."
Malcolm X // "They don't know what morals are. They don't try and eliminate an evil because it's evil, or because it's illegal, or because it's immoral; they eliminate it only when it threatens their existence... So you're wasting your time appealing to the moral conscience of a bankrupt man... If he had a conscience, he'd straighten this thing out with no more pressure being put upon him... We have to change our own mind. You can't change his mind about us. We've got to change our own minds about each other."
Virginia Woolf // "I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual."
David Lynch // "Have a great day everyone."
Bob Dylan // "An artist has got to be careful never really to arrive at a place where he thinks he's at somewhere. You always have to realize that you're constantly in a state of becoming. And, as long as you can stay in that realm you'll sort of be alright."
Witold Gombrowicz // "To me, art almost always speaks more forcefully when it appears in an imperfect, accidental, and fragmentary way, somehow just signaling its presence... I prefer the Chopin that reaches me in the street from an open window to the Chopin served in great style from the concert stage."
Frida Kahlo // "This is how it feels to be in this broken female body. This is how it feels to be alone... This is how it feels to be me. I dare you to look...and once you look, I’m going to make sure you cannot look away."
Anais Nin // "We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations."
John Malkovich // "May your work be compelling and original. May it be profound, touching, contemplative, and unique. May it help us to reflect on the question of what it means to be human, and may that reflection be blessed with heart, sincerity, candor, and grace. May you overcome adversity, censorship, poverty and nihilism, as many of you will most certainly be obliged to do... May you be blessed with the talent and rigor to teach us about the beating of the human heart in all its complexity, and the humility and curiosity to make it your life's work. And may the best of you...for it will only be the best of you, and even then only in the rarest and briefest moments...succeed in framing that most basic of questions, 'how do we live?' Godspeed."
Arthur Miller // "I think the job of the artist is to remind people of what they have chosen to forget."