“Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.”
– Vaclav Havel

“The only thing more unpalatable than a logophile is perhaps one who types.”
– The inimitable Vic Sarjoo, in response to my earlier repartee.

On Being Twenty-Six
by Philip Larkin

I feared these present years,
The middle twenties,
When deftness disappears,
And each event is
Freighted with a source-encrusting doubt,
And turned to drought.

I thought: this pristine drive
Is sure to flag
At twenty-four or -five;
And now the slag
Of burnt-out childhood proves that I was right.
What caught alight

Quickly consumed in me,
As I foresaw.
Talent, felicity ó
These things withdraw,
And are succeeded by a dingier crop
That come to stop;

Or else, certainly gone,
Perhaps the rest,
Tarnishing, linger on
As second-best.
Fabric of fallen minarets is trash.
And in the ash

Of what has pleased and passed
Is now no more
Than struts of greed, a last
Charred smile, a clawed
Crustacean hatred, blackened pride ñ of such
I once made much.

And so, if I were sure
I have no chance
To catch again that pure
Unnoticed stance,
I would calcine the outworn properties,
Live on what is.

But it dies hard, that world;
Or, being dead,
Putrescently is pearled,
For I, misled,
Make on my mind the deepest wound of all:
Think to recall

At any moment, states
Long since dispersed;
That if chance dissipates
The best, the worst
May scatter equally upon a touch.
I kiss, I clutch,

Like a daft mother, putrid
Infancy,
That can and will forbid
All grist to me
Except devaluing dichotomies:
Nothing, and paradise.

ìWhen trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.î
ñ Dave Barry

“Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way downî
– Ray Bradbury

[Thanks mom!]

“Jazz from people without a heroin problem isn’t that good.”
-Liz Winstead.

“It’s the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.”
– Tallulah Bankhead

“If you want to get into the movie business but you don’t have any special talent or ability, become a producer.”
– Monster producer Clark Peterson

“Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment.”
– Robert Benchley

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.”
– Roald Dahl