NITCH

Photo of Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith // I think the hardest thing for anyone is accepting that other people are real as you are. That’s it. Not using them as tools, not using them as examples or things to make yourself feel better or things to get over or under. Just accepting that they are absolutely as real as you are."

Photo of Nick Cave

Nick Cave // "The writer who refuses to explore the darker regions of the heart will never be able to write convincingly about the wonder, the magic and the joy of love...just as goodness cannot be trusted unless it has breathed the same air as evil."

Photo of George Harrison

George Harrison // "I'll tell you one thing for sure: once you get to the point where you're actually doing things for truth's sake, then nobody can ever touch you again because you're harmonizing with a greater power."

Photo of Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren // "Isn't it wonderful to be alive? You know, you can forget all about it. Then suddenly you remember, and think of all the things you can do. Here I am. I can walk around. I can talk. I can see things and remember things. I am alive. How wonderful."

Photo of Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser // "I believe that thinking about the consequences of your work, the issue of ethics, is essential. Since we’re specifically involved in the transmission of cultural ideas, ideas about value, then we have to examine the meaning of what we’re proposing... The issue is not about telling people what they should be doing, but rather trying to make people conscious of what they’re doing. There’s a difference. And what you hope will happen is that a consciousness develops which relates what you do to the society around you. It’s a very old-fashioned idea: what you do has an effect on the world you live in. And if you’re concerned about the state of the world, there is no escape from the fact that you’re participating in it."

Hayao Miyazaki // "I'd like more of the world to go back to being wild."

Photo of Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan // "Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception."

Photo of Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami // "Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart."

Photo of Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou // "Let's tell the truth to people. When people ask, 'How are you?'...have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don't want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you."

Photo of Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke // "The highest form of love is to be the protector of another person’s solitude."

Photo of Saul Steinberg

Saul Steinberg // "I think it is very important for people to run away...from home, from the mainstream, from their family, from the culture, from the society that produced them...because the moment I have to learn something new, like new habits, new languages, I myself have something like a rebirth. I reduce myself to the lowest denominator and this is very healthy for an artist. To start all over again."

Photo of Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski // "For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command...I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. We are here to read these words from all these wise men and women who will tell us that we are here for different reasons and the same reason."