( The Importance of Elsewhere )

Adam Zagajewski (tr. Renata Gorczynski), 'This'

This that lies heavy
and weighs down,
that aches like ache
and burns like a slap in the face,
is a stone
or an anchor.

( For a Moment )

"Prime numbers are divisible only by 1 and by themselves. They stand in their place in the infinite series of natural numbers, squashed in between two others, like all other numbers, but a step further on than the rest. They are suspicious and solitary, which is why Mattia thought they were wonderful. Sometimes he thought that they had ended up in ( Read more... )

"Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real. Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality."

- Iris Murdoch, "The Sublime and the Good", in: The Chicago Review, Vol. 13 (1959)

( Oh, Sophie )

"All I can say is that, believe it or not, sex is like anything else good: once you have it, you stop being quite so bothered about it."

- Nick Hornby, Slam

"Maybe it's the warm-fuzzy feeling of a memorable event in progress, or maybe it's the alcopops I'm working my way through. Maybe all memorable events are really just standard hilarious drunken nights in more expensive outfits."

- Claire Hennessy, Big Picture

"How does anybody fill their day? I think the truth is: you fill your day, most of the time, by being in the washing machine of your own mind, thinking: What's this? When does it stop? Am I enjoying it? I don't know. Oh, it's time to go to sleep. I can't; I'm worried."

- Dylan Moran on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

This has been a long time in the making. I started writing it more than a year ago, on a quiet evening in the library at Tübingen, and I've come back to it again and again to add to it and to tweak it. I think it's been worth it. I don't think I've been this happy with anything I've written.

Many, many thanks to tornyourdress for reading an earlier draft and ( Read more... )