"Was "fate" really the word he wanted to use? It seemed like such a ponderous and old-fashioned choice. And yet, as he probed more deeply into it, he discovered that was precisely what he meant to say. Or, if not precisely, it came close than any other term he could think of. Fate in the sense of what was, or what happened to be. It was something like the word "it" in the phrase "it is raining" or "it is night." What that "it" referred to Quinn had never known. A generalized condition of things as they were, perhaps; the state of is-ness that was the ground on which the happenings of the world took place. He could not be any more definite than that. But perhaps he was not really searching for anything definite."
Paul Auster, City of Glass

"I stayed there all day, wandering up and down the single street, eating supper on the beach. I watched the tide circle the rock once more, hiding the sea villages around it. The sun set into mists; the rock grew shadowed, hunched. I felt its stillness seep into my bones, felt rooted in the sand, heavy and tired, motionless. The gulls would nest in my hair; the barnacles cling to my ankles. I would sit there forever at the tide's edge, letting the sea and wind shape me, harden me, loving a rock because I had nothing else to love. The sea would be home; the rock's strength, my strength. I huddled against the dusk wind, wondering what tale I could possibly tell myself that might change the way I looked at the world. I was used to silence;I could let the winds blow through me, emptying me of all through. There was nothing else worth doing, no place else worth going. I stared into the twilight, searching for the candle ends of old tales, but nothing sparked in me, drenched the quiet coming night with fire. The wind grew dark; I heard the tide take on it hollow evening voice."
-Patricia Mckillip, "Stepping From the Shadows"

loitering with intent

"You must understand that everything happens for an artist, all time is redeemed, nothing is ever lost and wonders never cease."
Muriel Spark

Stranger on my t-shirt

It’s strange how with Facebook you can essentially curate your life by editing your photos, albums and information so that you appear in a certain way. Is your work a heightened version of that? Does it portray a perfect youth?

It feels like that, doesn’t it? When I look at these images, I think, “Oh my god! I want these photos to be the photos of my youth! I want to be 16 with long beautiful hair and freckles, on a beach with my cool skater boyfriend. Like, obviously!” They are very idealistic and carefree.


http://vicestyle.com/en/news/today/post/stranger-on-my-t-shirt

"We had been close. Whatever it is that makes closeness possible between people also puts them in the way of hard feelings if that closeness ends. Arthur and I were moving apart, and had been ever since we started high school. Arthur was trying to be a citizen. He stayed out of trouble and earned high grades. He played bass guitar with the Deltones, a pretty good band for which I had once tried out as drummer and been haughtily dismissed. The guys he ran around with at Concrete were all straight-arrows and strivers. He even had a girlfriend. And yet, knowing him as I did, I saw all this respectability as a performance, and a strained performance at that. Whatever their virtues, his new friends were dull. To fit in with them he had to hold his tongue and refrain from eccentric behavior. He had to act dull himself, which he wasn't and could only seem to be by an effort of will that was plain to me if to no one else."
-Tobias Wolf, "This Boy's Life"

Charlie Engman

"Digital spaces like flickr have a remarkable way of reproducing the art school environment, too, though, albeit in a very wonky, adolescent shape, so maybe formal training, whatever that means, is starting to be eclipsed, who knows."
"Yeah that’s an interesting idea… I think the internet for that purpose is still in it’s infancy and better for brewing ideas than holding the final product but still, the resources are so much more open and far-reaching than in an art school environment.
"But where would my photography be right now without the internet! It’s a scary thought. I didn’t realize the internet’s potential for dialogue until my very last term of art school, so I really did a complete 180 when I left, from talking to people to talking to personas on a screen, some of whom have done wonders for me."
interview