I write because I passionately want to speak. Even though writing is only giving me the great measure of silence.
— Clarice Lispector, Água Viva. (New Directions, June 13, 2012) Originally published August 1973.
Fernando Pessoa — The Vale of Soul-Making
A gladness in the air feels almost too cool against the skin. The day is ending not in grey but in pale blue. A hazy blue is even reflecting off the stones of the street. It hurts to live, but the pain is remote. Feeling doesn’t matter.
— Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet. (Penguin […]
Charles Bukowski — The Vale of Soul-Making
they thought I had guts they were wrong I was only frightened of more important things
— Charles Bukowski, from “Wall Clock,” Open All Night: New Poems. (Black Sparrow Press, September 1, 2000)
Allen Ginsberg — The Vale of Soul-Making
I don’t do anything with my life except romanticize and decay with indecision.
— Allen Ginsberg, The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems: 1937-1952. (Da Capo Press; 1st Da Capo Press Ed edition November 1, 2006)
Gaston Bachelard — The Vale of Soul-Making
The brook will nonetheless teach you to speak, in spite of sorrows and memories.
— Gaston Bachelard, Earth and Reveries of Will: An Essay on the Imagination of Matter. (Dallas Inst Humanities & Culture, September 1, 2002) Originally published 1948.
Albert Camus — The Vale of Soul-Making
I am too often continuously lonely, having nothing to articulate, defend, expose, or even occasionally justify.
— Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959 (Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 2008; first published 1989)
Charles Simic — The Vale of Soul-Making
All my dark thoughts laid out in a straight line. An abstract street on which an equally abstract intelligence forever advances, doubting the sound of its own footsteps.
— Charles Simic, “Euclid Avenue,” Unending Blues: Poems (Mariner Books, 1986)
Ernest Hemingway — The Vale of Soul-Making
I want nothing. I just want the emptiness to mean something.
— Ernest Hemingway, The Complete Short Stories (Scribner, 1987)
Charles Bukowski — The Vale of Soul-Making
It was a joy! Words weren’t dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you.
― Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye: A Novel. (Ecco; Reprint edition July 29, 2014)
Albert Camus — The Vale of Soul-Making
Words that come from the heart are always simple.
— Albert Camus, The Misunderstanding. (1943)
Naked Cities Journal 
You must be logged in to post a comment.