Quotes from Anthony Marais

Art is aesthetic communication of the soul—in fact, it's the best of that communication—and taken in its entirety has formed a body of work to stand alongside Science and Religion as one of the three great constructs of culture to aid the individual in his or her struggle to survive in Nature.

Those who do not preach life but live it do not smile to the lily near the bank; they look for stones and hang on.

Nothing distresses the civilized person like unfettered nature. The Grand Canyon seen from behind the railing is indeed a splendid sight, but as soon as the desert reclaims your golf course that is another matter altogether.

If one chews a problem over long enough, it becomes apparent that the jaw is aching, and what started as weighing heavy on the heart ends up a pain in the neck.

The psyche exists (quite happily, one might add) on an entirely different plane than the body: whereas the body is inextricably bound to time, degrading day-by-day on its 85-year death trek, the psyche is, indeed, ageless, blending its memories into a single unit. It simply collects information—and "maturing" is really nothing more than a judgement of the quality of that information.

Contemplation and writing demand solitude, which leads to a sorry feeling of isolation and detachment. Writers try to call their loneliness genius, and the world believes them most of the time.

Creating a piece of writing is really the easiest thing in the world—about as natural as creating excrement (and many writers will, indeed, describe their work as such).

We should be carefree with our bodies and prudish with our brains, not the contrary. How virtuous we are with our flesh, and yet the first foul thought that comes our way is invited to the depths of our soul.

Everyone thinks alchemy is dead, but alchemists live among us—they are called editors: adept in the art of transformation, they practice arcane methods of selection, deletion and synthesis to take what is base and produce gold.

So many are obsessed with success that they fail to realize sleep is the best time of day and the second most important activity we do. In fact, it ranks so closely to the first activity, that many people confuse the terms.

If pleasure is Nature's seal of approval, sleep is her reward.

There is nothing more blinding than having seen the light, and nothing more tiresome than sharing it.

Most parents are so convinced of their little darling's innocence that, by proxy, in rallying for junior's purity they come to believe in their own innocence—as if duplicating oneself will make a right!

Infatuation is measured in pleasure. Love is measured in pain. Behold the value of pain!

Temptation is the voice of reason without its clothes on.

We need but three things to change the world: a brain, a heart, and a friend.

The key to writing is something to be stolen. How else does one open the door to a house of thieves?

Our most cultural state is one of total certainty—which is the reason those of us who are most certain are those who are most out of touch with nature (i.e., reality).

Somethingism is better than nihilism.

Novelty does not require intelligence, but ignorance, which is why the young excel in this branch.

From our myopia arose our dystopia.

Wisdom doesn't come only from the experience you have had, but from the experience you have chosen not to have.

We are all born wise. Unfortunately, we all don't die that way.

We cannot escape the longing, no matter what life we choose. We're either longing for people, places or times gone by, which are essentially the same things: memories. And, whether or not we travel, the older we get, the more memories we collect. Nostalgia is simply the result of aging and liking the life you've lived. Be happy you can feel it—it's a good sign.