“Sitting by yourself, forcing the swirl of thoughts into a linear, systematic journey forward—it makes you smarter. It’s like a pastry bag, literacy is. It presses you into one clear line.” —Margaret Edson, schoolteacher and Pulitzer Prize winner (for her play, Wit), in The New York Times

New York magazine: What makes someone a New Yorker?
Oliver Sacks: The inability to leave New York. (full interview here)

"Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager." —Susan Sontag 

"In your head, picture yourself landing it." —skateboarders at the Hudson River

Photo © Kristina Feliciano. Taken with my iPhone.

“Jazz music is existence music. It doesn’t take you out of the world. It puts you in the world. It makes you deal with it. It’s not the kind of…religiosity of 'Thou must.' It’s not. It’s 'This is.' And that’s it. 'This is.' It deals with the present. … Somebody was laying out in the street. It might have been the cat who was playing. It might have been Charlie Parker. But that fact doesn’t alter the power…of what he’s saying. ‘Yes, I did that, but I also do this.’ [That is] the range of humanity that is in this music.” —Wynton Marsalis in Jazz

Anita O'Day

"There are in the city a large number of people whose hobby is…going out and going to restaurants. A lot of people don't understand that in most kitchens, everything that's ordered gets cooked by somebody. You ask your mama for a peanut butter sandwich, your mama takes some fuckin' bread, takes some fuckin' peanut butter, and makes you a fuckin' sandwich. It's the same thing that happens in this place, only I'm not your fuckin' mama." —Kenny Shopsin, proprietor, Shopsin's, in the documentary I Like Killing Flies.

Screenshot of Kenny Shopsin from "I Like Killing Flies."

"He once said, 'The artist's life is the best in the world if you can get through the first 40 years.'" —Mildred Small, speaking of her brother, Thomas Hart Benton, in Ken Burns' America: Thomas Hart Benton

“Falling out of love is like losing weight. It’s a lot easier putting it on than taking it off.” —Aretha Franklin to Rob Hoerburger of The New York Times Magazine in "A-R-E-T-H-A"