Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” — Paul Cézanne

“You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.“

– Oscar Wilde

“There was a grand piano, too, and Charles was playing, a glass of whiskey on the seat beside him. He was a little drunk; the Chopin was slurred and fluid, the notes melting sleepily into one another. A breeze stirred the heavy, moth-eaten velvet curtains, ruffling his hair.”

Jorie Graham, from “San Sepolcro”, The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems

Dostoevsky’s drawings and calligraphy on his manuscripts.

“If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.” - Leonardo da Vinci

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

-Oscar Wilde, De Profundis

“I feel as if I'm always on the verge of waking up.” ― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

richard siken, the torn-up road