NITCH

Photo of Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke // "Don't you find it odd...that when you're a kid, everyone, all the world, encourages you to follow your dreams. But when you're older, somehow they act offended if you even try."

Photo of Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch // "From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity."

Photo of Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren // "When I'm walking along in the street, I always feel that around the corner, there is something wonderful waiting for me. That's my attitude."

Photo of Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami // "As I see it, you are living with something that you keep hidden deep inside. Something heavy. I felt it from the first time I met you. You have a strong gaze, as if you have made up your mind about something. To tell you the truth, I myself carry such things around inside. Heavy things. That is how I can see it in you."

Photo of Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon // "No artist knows in his own lifetime whether what he does will be the slightest good, because it takes at least seventy-five to a hundred years before the thing begins to sort itself out."

Photo of Henry Miller

Henry Miller // "An age such as ours is the most difficult one of all for an artist. There is no place for him. At least, that is what one hears on all sides. Nevertheless, some few artists of our time have made a place for themselves. Picasso made a place for himself. Joyce made a place for himself. Matisse made a place for himself. Celine made a place for himself. Should I rattle off the whole list?... Those who are perpetually talking about the inability to communicate with the world, have they made every effort? Have they learned how to be as wise and cunning as the serpent, as well as strong and obstinate as a bull? Or are they braying like donkeys, whining about some ideal condition in the ever-receding future when every man will be recognized and rewarded for his labors? Do they really expect such a day to dawn, these simple souls? I feel that I have some right to speak about the difficulty of establishing communication with the world since my books are banned in the only countries where I can be read in my own tongue. I have enough faith in myself however to know that I eventually will make myself heard, if not understood. Everything I write is loaded with the dynamite which will one day destroy the barriers erected about me. If I fail it will be because I did not put enough dynamite into my words. And so, while I have the strength and the gusto I will load my words with dynamite... You want to communicate. All right, communicate! Use any and every means."

Photo of Merri Cyr and Jeff Buckley

Merri Cyr (& Jeff Buckley) // "Jeff allowed me to photograph him in an uncensored way: while he was playing, being interviewed, at dinner, at rest...everything. He wanted people to see his authentic self as opposed to a rock icon. I photographed him when he was angry, tired, pissed off...most of the time people don’t allow you to see those aspects of themselves, especially when they are in the process of being mythologized. I think he liked how I saw him through the camera...which hopefully was with empathy. He was very beautiful, but I think Jeff’s beauty wasn’t about his body, but his ephemeral brilliance. He was very inspiring, as an artist you wanted to be as good as he was."

Photo of Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou // "At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel."

Photo of Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders // "I believe...we are in this together. These are not just words. The truth is on some level when you hurt, when your children hurt, I hurt. And when my kids hurt, you hurt. And it’s very easy to turn our backs on kids who are hungry or veterans who are sleeping out on the street and we can develop a psyche, a psychology which says, 'I don’t have to worry about them, all I’m going to worry about is myself, I need to make another five million dollars.' But I believe what human nature is about is that everybody impacts everybody else...in all kinds of ways that we can’t even understand. It’s beyond intellect. It’s a spiritual, emotional thing. So I believe that when we do the right thing, when we try to treat people with respect and dignity, when we say that that child who is hungry is my child, I think we are more human when we do that... That is my religion. That’s what I believe in."

Photo of J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger // "I think that one of these days, you're going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you've got to start going there. But immediately. You can't afford to lose a minute. Not you."

Photo of Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart // "Some of us have great runways already built for us. If you have one, take off. But if you don't have one, realize it is your responsibility to grab a shovel and build one for yourself and for those who will follow after you."

Photo of Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski // "I don't think it hurts, sometimes, to remember where you came from...They call it '9 to 5.' It's never 9 to 5... And what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don't want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds. The color leaves the eye. The voice becomes ugly. And the body. The hair. The fingernails. The shoes. Everything does. As a young man I could not believe that people could give their lives over to those conditions. As an old man, I still can't believe it. What do they do it for? ... An automobile on monthly payments? Or children? Children who are just going to do the same things that they did? ... Now in industry, there are vast layoffs...They are layed off by the hundreds of thousands and their faces are stunned: 'I put in 35 years...It ain't right...I don't know what to do...' They never pay the slaves enough so they can get free, just enough so they can stay alive and come back to work. I could see all this...I figured the park bench was just as good...Why not get there first before they put me there? Why wait? I just wrote in disgust against it all, it was a relief to get the shit out of my system. And now that I'm here, a so-called professional writer, after giving the first 50 years away...the luck I finally had in getting out of those places, no matter how long it took, has given me a kind of joy...I now write from an old mind and an old body, long beyond the time when most men would ever think of continuing such a thing, but since I started so late I owe it to myself to continue, and when the words begin to falter and I must be helped up stairways and I can no longer tell a bluebird from a paperclip, I still feel that something in me is going to remember...how I've come through the murder and the mess and the moil, to at least a generous way to die. To not to have entirely wasted one's life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for myself."