James Baldwin // "For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out."
Malcolm X // "Daring to reach, to climb, to crawl, to scratch, to get back up when you've been knocked down, to push forward, ever forward... It means sacrificing everything, if necessary, to carve out a place for your own existence."
Hunter S. Thompson // "A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance... You have no choice but to accept things as they are, or to seriously seek something else... But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living within that way of life. But you say, 'I don’t know where to look; I don’t know what to look for.' And there’s the crux. Is it worth giving up what I have to look for something better? I don’t know...is it? Who can make that decision but you? But even by deciding to look, you go a long way toward making the choice."
Nina Simone // "I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear."
David Bowie // "I’m a person who can take on the guises of people I meet. I’m a collector, and I collect personalities and ideas."
Miles Davis // "I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life."
Jean Cocteau // "I’ve always preferred mythology to history. Because history is made up of truths which eventually turn into lies, while mythology is made up of lies that eventually become truths. And if I have the good fortune to live on in your minds, it would be in mythological form."
Joan Didion // "I want you to know, as you read me, precisely who I am and where I am and what is on my mind. I want you to understand exactly what you are getting: you are getting a woman who for some time now has felt radically separated from most of the ideas that seem to interest people. You are getting a woman who, somewhere along the line, misplaced whatever slight faith she ever had in the social contract...in the whole grand pattern of human endeavor."
John Coltrane // "I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I'm doing...the emotional reaction is all that matters, as long as there's some feeling of communication, it isn't necessary that it be understood."
Ernest Hemingway // "I'm tired of everybody. Please forgive me."
Charlie Chaplin // "To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish… Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural... You, the people have the power, the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure... Let us use that power. Let us all unite."
David Lynch // "You never know when ideas are going to hit you. You can get ideas just from sitting in a room daydreaming, just feeling the air. I think people are like radios. They pick up signals."