say as little as possible

once you open up your eyes to the full, quotes pop up like sprouts in spring. the air seems to be brimming with 'em. wisdom is being whispered from fanatic's lips or else spoken up (hopefully not in tongues ~ unless we're talking TALKING HEADS). thus i've been wondering about quotes recently, about the quality of quotes. because like the next person, i do enjoy a memorable quote {when found solitary, on someone's blog, e.g.; here or here}.


since i caught quotable gertrude stein/kathy bates saying the following on our television screen just a few days ago: "... we all fear death, and question our place in the universe. the artist's job it is, not to succomb to despair, but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence, ... ", i have felt a little out of sorts. {the actress spoke the words to a desperate owen wilson - who handles woody allen's mild melancholy to a tee, might i add?}

i mean, as an antidote to fear of dying in general, it is a comforting cite. sit back, relax, find your topic, enjoy the creative process, you're done. consider the emptiness of existence and roll yourself in it. accept it. on a clear day one can see forever, and in a good mood that is exactly what we'll do, and we'll be creative and kill that thing, that bug, that knowledge, that piece of existence. well. kill it. LIVE it!

quote by cesare pavese
but when the days are dark, and when the walls come tumbling down, the quality of life and death, or quotes on the subject, can become a little gloomy, a little hard for us to take. but a few examples: "there is left us ourselves to end ourselves" (william shakespeare), "i hope the leaving is joyful, and i hope never to return" (frida kahlo), "there are worse things in life than death. have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?" (to quote the man himself, woody allen).

just to make the point, really, quotes should be taken in small doses, don't you find? which is NOT what happens in above mentioned movie. a fireworks of quotes, of cites, of excerpts and paraphrases. and once one tires of words spoken to fulfill wisdom's despair, fortunately, there will always be paris. let's live, let's dance.

16 comments:

  1. i love you.
    x

    " anxiety is a vulture who sits upon your shoulder. "
    -quoted from the movie Spectrum.

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  2. Yes, yes, yes! Quotes are good - but you can have too much of a good thing. I went through a phase of collecting motivational quotes - everyone from Goethe to Ricky Nelson and back again - and very occasionally I'll dip into my little box and pull one out. It's fine if I stop at one - or even two. Any more and I start to feel the opposite of motivated - exhausted even . . .

    Hope all is good in your corner of the world and that this cold snap happening in Europe isn't affecting you too much.

    And - just for the record - here is my latest favourite quote :-)

    “Music expresses that which can not be said and on which it is impossible to be silent”
    - Victor Hugo

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  3. i agree nadine, quotes are good in small doses. I don't do much in quotes, but i do love the poems (gruks) of piet hein.
    I watched midnight in paris a few nights ago ... i liked it :)

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  4. to begin is the right word (to be continued...)
    ;)

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  5. Right sweetie let's not overdose!
    i'm starting right now ;) xx

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  6. I love the comments on this post....Nadine your amazing!

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  7. I haven't seen the movie ( really I watch very rearly any movies lately. The last I've watched was Lion King !!! )
    And I have always been a manic quote collector myself. But lately there are getting a bit of ...fashionable. It's almost: why read the book, when I have a quote ready???

    Yes in small doses.
    ( I love some illistrated ones that appear in places.Mostly because of the illustration itself)

    love to you : )

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  8. How funny because I just used a quote to blog about spring..... I would love to see that movie as well!

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  9. "let's live, let's dance." yes, agreed. sometimes all of this observing and thinking and reading grows tiresome. dancing almost always leads to joy and laughter. no, i did not mean to say that as a quote, but just noticed my quoting you at the beginning of this comment. oh no, there's no escaping the quote.

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  10. awww, i love that you linked to my garden (and cicero - taking no credit for him, of course ;)

    and i don't like the thought of your walls tumbling down or your days going dark (any more than you like to think of mine) but i guess these times are a part of everyone's life, yes? and i agree, dark days often call for a lightness to dispel them, rather than deep thinking. i often do my better deep thinking when life is not so painful - an afterthought, so to speak. in darkness and pain sometimes we don't think quite rightly... perhaps that's when shakespeare penned the particular quote you mentioned here. sometimes it isn't a bad thing to contemplate life and death, or life after death, as it were... i suppose it depends on where your contemplation takes you, in the end.

    i do hope for lighter, brighter days, and sturdy walls, in your future... dear artist.

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  11. p.s. did you not adore adrian brody as "dali" in that movie? "do you like the rhinoceros?"

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  12. dear dear tiny woolf! your packet arrived!
    It makes me happy to own something you made youself : )

    lots of love
    xo xo xo d

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  13. I'm so looking forward to seeing 'Midnight in Paris' ... it's on my list to watch very soon! :)
    I very much enjoy a good quote, but yes sometimes the quote world becomes a bit too saturated ... and then it doesn't do much good at all. Little nibbles are definitely best.
    :)

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  14. That movie played on one of the flights I just took - i didn't give it full attention, and I didn't even bother to find my earbuds because the acting sans volume didn't grab me - wrong?

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    1. well, acting sans volume on a swinging music background.... i'm guessing watching a movie on an airplane will always feel a little out of sorts, but i'd have given woody-allen-high-up-in the air an ear shot. .. ;)
      the movie is worth watching, if you're an allen fan.
      n♥

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