Just Like Real Life

make (what you) believe.

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

“I let everything burn.”

— Charles Bukowski, from The Roominghouse Madrigals; “Thermometer,”

[books-n-quotes]

“A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else.”

— Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

[theclassicsreader]

“We tell stories not to die of life…”

— Antjie Krog, Country of My Skull 

[metaphorformetaphor]

But the world did go on, unashamed, after you

Agha Shahid Ali, from “After You,” Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals (W. W. Norton  Company, 2003)

[books-n-quotes]

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

V.S. Naipaul, In a Free State (via books-n-quotes)

[books-n-quotes]

How complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is.

Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (via books-n-quotes)

[lifeinpoetry]

We’re all performing our bruises.

Analicia Sotelo, from “Private Property” published in The Rumpus (via words-and-coffee)

[books-n-quotes]

All great art has madness, and quite a lot of bad art has it, too.

William Saroyan, My Heart’s in the Highlands (via books-n-quotes)

[the-book-diaries]

I obviously do everything to be ‘hard to understand’ myself.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (via the-book-diaries)

[books-n-quotes]

As far as I could see, life demanded skills I didn’t have.

Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted (via books-n-quotes)

[artsnquotes]

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

Edgar Degas (via wnq-art)

[minuty]

[shaelinwrites]

A bad idea written down is far better and far more useful to you than a blank sheet of paper and a mythical piece of brilliance that has been stuck in your head out of fear of failure. Go ahead and fail. Then make it better.

My screenwriting prof.

I felt like a lot of people needed to hear this. Including myself.

(via shaelinwrites)

[books-n-quotes]

Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves.

Don Miguel Ruiz,The Four Agreements (via books-n-quotes)

[wordsnquotes]

I have this strange feeling that I’m not myself anymore. It’s hard to put into words, but I guess it’s like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling.

Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart (via wordsnquotes)

[books-n-quotes]

We’re talking about the novel, right? But maybe we’re not. We’re talking about ourselves. And I guess that’s what can start to happen when you talk about a book.

Meg Wolitzer, Belzhar (via books-n-quotes)

[books-n-quotes]

I tell myself I am searching for something. But more and more, it feels like I am wandering, waiting for something to happen to me, something that will change everything, something that my whole life has been leading up to.

Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed (via books-n-quotes)