Books
One afternoon she was drying on the rock, and she felt a thread of sunlight inside her chest. She had never believed in the existence of a soul except in abstract terms, yet she felt this, and she knew it was her soul. She wasn’t planning to do anything with it; she just liked knowing it was there. When she told me this story, I immediately began to picture myself with her, so I never used to like it when she told it to anyone else. Later, I realized no one else understands what the story’s about. Everyone seems to think it’s about religion, but what it really means is that she knows how to be alone.
From Things to Make and Break, by May-Lan Tan
"You will find this, perhaps, an over-intellectualization of the event. Indeed, but this was what I was trained to do. This, and pliés."
-Barbara Browning, I’m Trying To Reach You
Who gets to speak and why...is the only question
Chris Kraus, I Love Dick
"The science of existence was completely out there for me to explore. Me, a twenty-five year old female. There’s no mystery why poetry is so elaborately practiced by the young. The material of poems is energy itself, not even language. Words come later."
-Eileen Myles, Inferno (a poet’s novel)
"Of course, I said to myself, the essay on Dido is mine, the capacity to formulate beautiful sentences comes from me, but didn't I work it out with her, didn't we excite each other in turn, didn't my passion grow in the warmth of hers?"
