“If there is no love in the world, we will make a new world, and we will give it walls, and we will furnish it with soft, red interiors, from the inside out, and give it a knocker that resonates like a diamond falling to a jeweller’s felt so that we should never hear it. Love me, because love doesn’t exist, and I have tried everything that does.”
– Jonathan Safran Foer
I recently read Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter. It was a short read, but also a beautiful and empowering one. Within just over 100 pages, Angelou writes of life experiences that have taught her valuable lessons and dedicates the collection to all of the women she’s been a mother to throughout her lifetime. Here are some of my favourite quotes from her stories:
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
“The ensuing years have taught me that a kind word, a vote of support is a charitable gift. I can move over and make another place for someone. I can turn my music up if it pleases, or down if it is annoying.”
“I came to understand that I can never forget where I came from. My soul should always look back and wonder at the mountains I had climbed and the rivers I had forged and the challenges which still await down the road. I am strengthened by that knowledge.”
“We have the brains and the heart to face our futures bravely. Taking responsibility for the time we take up and the space we occupy.”
“The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights. I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today, I am blessed.”
There is content in this book that would be appreciated by any human being, of any gender, from any walk of life. If you haven’t read it already, I would highly recommend this short and sweet collection for an end-of-summer read.
| alex
“Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There’s magic in that. It’s in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift. Your sister may be able to see the future, but you yourself can shape it, boy. Do not forget that. There are many kinds of magic, after all.”
The Night Circus – it had captured my heart the moment I laid eyes on the black, white, and silver cover so many years ago, on a 30% off shelf located near the front doors of Chapters. Now, having finished it for the second time, I realize how twisted fate can be, bringing this story back to me in the time I needed it the most, taking me home to a place only thought up in the confines of the 387-page book.
If I had thought I loved it then, bringing it home, opening it, and finishing it overnight, I truly can’t explain the emotion I feel for it today. I can’t explain to you what this book is about, because in doing that I would ruin the story. As true to the title as any book has ever been, The Night Circus is a journey through a magical place, binding many together in a duel that most think will only end in sadness. But with the sadness comes a beauty that surpasses anything imaginable. With vivid description, Erin Morgenstern puts the reader into the Circus; you can smell the caramel and popcorn as you sit in your room at night, a candle flickering on your bed stand only adding to the atmosphere of the multitude of tents featuring Ice Garden’s, a mysterious Labyrinth, living statues, and so much more.
I can honestly say The Night Circus is one of the best works of fiction I have ever read, born from this century, or ones past. Fantasy, romance, magic, I will love this book until the end of time and I will never stop loving the magical black and white, with the splash of red. I hope, should you read this book as well, you find the same magic in the pages as I did. It reinvigorated my love of reading, as I passed the last few days unable to put it down. There is much I love, and many lines I couldn’t stop rereading, but here I leave you with just a few, maybe enough to capture the same magic in you. Happy reading lovelies.
“Why haven’t you asked me how I do my tricks?” Celia asks, once they have reached the point where she is certain he is not simply being polite about the matter.
Friedrick considers the question thoroughly before he responds.
“Because I do not wish to know,” he says. “I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark.”
“Widge can see the past,” Poppet says suddenly, diverting the conversation. “It’s one of the reasons his stories are always so good.”
“The past is easier,” Widget says. “It’s already there.”
“In the stars?” Bailey asks.
“No,” Widget says. “On people. The past stays on you the way powdered sugar stays on your fingers. Some people can get rid of it but it’s still there, the events and things that pushed you to where you are now. I can…well, read isn’t the right word, but it’s not the right word for what Poppet does with the stars, either.”
| cassie
There are few people in this world who are as wonderfully gifted in writing as my friend, Julian.
I’ve known him for a few years now and have had the amazing pleasure of watching his writing grow from funny little poems to incredibly deep puncturing prose. I will never be more envious of a single person than I am of Julian and will never be more inspired by someone’s words than his. (And I just wanted to show off the fact that I have talented friends.)
– Julian Budani, an amazing writer and friend.
| danielle
I recently finished reading Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. I don’t often pick up autobiographical or humour books, but I’ve found myself irrevocably in love with Mindy Kaling since I started watching The Mindy Project and had to give this one a read. It did not disappoint. I’m almost angry at myself for not reading this sooner. It came out in 2011 and I spent two years not knowing how smart and hilarious Mindy is. I thought I’d share a couple of my favourite excerpts from her book:
“My body mass index is certainly not ideal, I frequently use my debit card to buy thing that cost less than three dollars, because I never have cash on me, and my bedroom is so untidy it looks like vandals ransacked the Anthropologie Sale section. I’m kind of a mess.”
“(The Exactly Level of Fame I want)
Batshit Stuff I Wear is Immediately Considered Fashionable
I want to rock harem pants or black lipstick like Gwen Stefani does and have people be like, ‘That’s jut Mindy,’ and then everyone starts doing it.””
“I really do have a remarkable appetite. I remember when the news reports came out about Michael Phelps’s ten-thousand-calorie-a-day diet, and everyone was so shocked. But I just thought, yep, I could do that, no problem.”
“(Strict Instructions for My Funeral)
No current wives or girlfriends of my exes are allowed to attend. This part is really, for real, non-negotiable. They’ll just use the opportunity to look all hot in black.”
“*Notice how I laid in all that dramatic irony here? Like in Titanic, when Kate Winslet’s character loved those weird paintings by a little-known artist named Picasso? And in the audience of the theatre you were laughing to yourself because you knew Picasso turned out to be kind of a big deal? I’m trying to tell you that I’m Picasso.”
“(Karaoke Etiquette)
And it kind of behooves you to pick a short song. I don’t care if Don freakin’ McLean shows up in a red-white-and-blue tuxedo, no one is allowed to sing ‘American Pie.’ It’s actually kind of hostile to a group of partiers to pick a song longer than three minutes.”
(Best Friend Rights and Responsibilities)
“I will try to like your boyfriend five times. This is a fair number of times to hang out with your boyfriend and withhold judgement.”
(Steve Carell is Nice but it is Scary)
“Later I would privately theorize that he never involved himself in gossip because — and I am 99 percent sure of this — he is secretly Perez Hilton”
I hope this collection of quotes kick starts your love of Mindy Kaling and that you go out to buy this book as soon as you possibly can. And I hope that upon finishing the book, you binge-watch The Mindy Project and start to bring up Mindy in all conversations as if she’s a new guy you’ve just started dating. That may seem absurd to you now, but you’ll understand soon enough.
| alex
I had plans to write something more substantial by the end of the week, but the past few days proved to be more difficult than I could’ve anticipated. I was simply confronted with challenges that left me with little time to dedicate to anything else. So this post will just be a short collection of quotes that I’ve found helpful in the darkest moments of this week. This goes out to anyone else who has felt a little broken lately, a little lost, a little hopeless. You are not alone. And things will get better.
“You are not useless. You are not hopeless. And no matter how scared you are, you will never be alone. And deep down, somewhere, in the part of you that decided the good days and your happiness and your health were all worth fighting for, you know that, too. Hold onto that knowledge. It will see you through the worst.”
“Your fragility is also your strength.”
– Pina Bausch
“The good times and the bad times both will pass. It will pass. It will get easier. But the fact that it will get easier does not mean that it doesn’t hurt now. And when people try to minimize your pain they are doing you a disservice. And when you try to minimize your own pain you’re doing yourself a disservice. Don’t do that. The truth is that it hurts because it’s real. It hurts because it mattered. And that’s an important thing to acknowledge to yourself. But that doesn’t mean that it won’t end, that it won’t get better. Because it will.”
“Life isn’t meant to be an all or nothing battle between misery and bliss. Life isn’t meant to be a battle at all. And when it comes to happiness, well, sometimes life is just OK. Sometimes it’s comfortable, sometimes wonderful, sometimes boring, sometimes uncomfortable. When your day’s not perfect, it’s not a failure or a terrible loss. It’s just another day.”
– Barbara Sher
“Breathe. You’re going to be okay. Breathe and remember that you’ve been in this place before. You’ve been this uncomfortable and anxious and scared, and you’ve survived. Breathe and know that you can survive this too. These feelings can’t break you. They’re painful and debilitating, but you can sit with them and eventually, they will pass. Maybe not immediately, but sometime soon, they are going to fade and when they do, you’ll look back at this moment and laugh for having doubted your resilience. I know it feels unbearable right now, but keep breathing, again and again. This will pass. I promise it will pass.”
– Daniell Koepke
I hope your weekend is brighter and more beautiful than you could imagine.
| alex
In celebration of one of my favourite authors being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2014, I thought I’d share some of my favourite excerpts and quotes of his. John Green is a 30-something young-adult fiction writer from Indianapolis, IN. He is a Printz Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author, his most well-known books being Looking for Alaska (2005) and The Fault in Our Stars (2012). He is also involved in several projects with his brother, Hank Green, including (but certainly not limited to) the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel, VidCon, and Project for Awesome – a community-building project that takes over YouTube once a year to raise money for charities (their fundraising goal last year was $100,00 and they ended up raising $869,171!)
Shailene Woodley will be acting in the lead role of the film adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars (set to be released June 6th!) and wrote a short article for the Time 100 about John Green. She completes the piece with true and beautiful words: “He sees people with curiosity, compassion, grace, and excitement. And he’s encouraging a huge community of followers to do the same. What a gift to be alive at the same time as this admirable leader.”
Here is a collection of some of my favourite John Green quotes:
I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.
– The Fault in Our Stars
Thomas Edison’s last words were “It’s very beautiful over there.” I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful.
– Looking for Alaska
Here’s my advice: study broadly and without fear; learn a language if you can because that will make you life more interesting; read a little bit everyday. But most importantly, try to surround yourself with people you like and make cool stuff with them. In the end, at least in my experience, what you do isn’t going to be nearly as interesting or important as who you do it with.
– What To Do With Your Life | vlogbrothers
Maybe there’s something you’re afraid to say, or someone you’re afraid to love, or somewhere you’re afraid to go. It’s gonna hurt. It’s gonna hurt because it matters.
– Will Grayson, Will Grayson
But it is the nature of stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he has Cassius note, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.”
– The Fault in Our Stars
I hope you take the time this summer to familiarize yourself with John Green’s writing and projects. He’s really just an incredibly admirable and inspiring human being. Happy Tuesday!
| alex
I stumbled upon a blog recently that I wanted to share with all of you! Casual Blessings is dedicated to sharing grace and good wishes. It wishes upon its readers (and draws their attention to) small, casual, secular blessings. Some are written by the owner, Leikkona, and others are posted on a submission basis. It’s been active for a year and only has ten pages of content, but it seems as though activity has picked up in the past couple of months so I think this is definitely one to keep an eye on! Here are some of my favourite casual blessings:
May you pick up your tea when it’s exactly the right temperature, and may you happen to glance out the window when the light is just how you like it.
May you listen to a song you always skipped and find out you love it.
May a crisp fall breeze tickle your nose, and may you see some colourful leaves dancing on the sidewalk today.
May you encounter kindness and respect when you open yourself to the people you love.
The posts are short and so incredibly sweet. It’s a simple and beautiful theme, a lovely reminder of everything in our lives that is magical. Happy Monday, everyone!
| alex
I used to be an avid reader of Thought Catalog. A friend showed me a TC-published piece a couple of years ago and I immediately became hooked. All of the contributing writers at the time were putting together pieces that were thoughtful, beautiful, insightful; their work made me think, showed me new perspectives, moved me. There has been an unsettling shift within the past year or so. Even though there are now more articles posted per day, the value and beauty I used to find in every article on the website can now only be found in one of every 50 pieces published; it has become an exhausting task to sift through all the listicles, reddit shares, and poorly-written narratives to try and find something of substance. I miss the way things used to be; I miss when every single one of the articles published was well-written, respectable, and intelligent in some way.
I thought I would pay my respects to those good ol’ days and share with you guys the writing of Cody Gohl. He’s by far my favourite writer to have ever been published on TC. His writing is beautiful, poetic, and so moving. Here are some of my favourite excerpts from Cody’s writing:
But Neruda must have felt like this once must have sat on a bench and watched and crafted love out of something like a piece of tissue held in hands wrinkled and glass fragile but now they’ve left and the woman too and a plump grey cloud rolls above my head.
– It’s Been A While Since Anyone Cared Enough
For him, you will be the light at the end of the tunnel, the halo of glowing yellow that he has been waiting for. Never forget that you are someone worth steering for, someone worth the swift kick in the opposite direction worth all of the trials and checklists and almostrights because you are a mountaintop, the crush of violet on skin from a rainbow that seems so close to the earth that it must be real.
Because even if we ran out of things to say I don’t think it’d bother me much don’t think it would send my bones to rattle and okay maybe I talk too much and try to connect too much and maybe the line I said about your heart beat didn’t sound as poetic out loud as it did in my head but I’m a zany case of skin and I can’t help it that you make me buzz electric and it’s not my fault that in my mind we’re just two lightning bugs like darting stars in tall grass
– All The Things I Want To Say To You
Help me to seize more color of this world. Help me to toss the sails to wade waist-deep in water too cold because someone said they didn’t want to go in alone. Help me to remember times in which I’ve been sad and hurt when talking to people who are sad and hurt and help me to pepper the mundane with adventure.
– Help!
I imagine a boy who became a man before he’d realized it. A case full of old instruments, loose paper. His hands have roughened, but are gentler now. They’ve learned how to hold other hands without getting clammy. He reads his old journals and chuckles at the sentimentality of it all.
– Future
Cody no longer writes for Thought Catalog, but all of his articles can still be found on his author page. He currently posts new pieces and poems on his blog and you can keep updated by following him on Twitter. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve been exposed to so far, I also highly recommend you buy his eBook, A Slow Moving Something. It’s a collection of essays and poems about his time studying abroad in Madrid. If you’re like me and are sans eReader, you can download a free Kindle app on your phone/macbook and read it that way.
I don’t think I’d ever be so bold as to call myself a writer but I do love it. And I think it’s so important to keep myself growing, learning, and inspired through other people’s writing. Cody’s writing has always inspired me. I love the honesty in his narratives. I love how he writes of experiences and feelings so personal, but they still somehow feel like my own after I’m finished reading. I love the way he strings together words to create glowing images in my mind. I love the lack of structure, how his sentences flow and melt together.
I hope you love his work as much as I do; I hope it moves and inspires you. Happy Wednesday!
| alex
Streamers of Stardust 