Quotes About Awareness

But then I remind myself that life is really just about one moment at a time. To not think about two years from now, but to think about right now. Two years from now will figure itself out.

Your hands already know too much.

Nothing quite brings out the zest for life in a person like the thought of their impending death

human being could be alive for years and years, thinking and breathing and eating, full of a million worries and feelings and thoughts, taking up space in the world, and then, in an instant, become absent, invisible.

I think that the power of art is the power to wake us up, strike us to our depths, change us. What are we searching for when we read a novel, see a film, listen to a piece of music? We are searching, through a work of art, for something that alters us, that we weren't aware of before. We want to transform ourselves, just as Ovid's masterwork transformed me.

The unknown words remind me that there's a lot I don't know in this world.

If I want to understand what moves me, what confuses me, what pains me—everything that makes me react, in short—I have to put it into words.

I think that the power of art is the power to wake us up, strike our depths, change us. What are we searching for when we read a novel, see a film, listen to a piece of music? We are searching, through a work of art, for something that alters us, that we we weren't aware of before. We want to transform ourselves, just as Ovid's masterwork transformed me.

So that she began to see herself more clearly, as a thin film of dust was wiped from a sheet of glass.

He was blind to self-constraints, like an animal incapable of perceiving certain colors.

Le parole sconosciute mi ricordano che c'è tanto che non conosco in questo mondo.

Without saying a word to each other we know that, if we chose to, we could venture into something reckless, also pointless.

Again, as it was after Udayan's death, there was an acute awareness of time, of the future looming, accelerating. The baby's lifetime, so scant, already outdistancing and outpacing her own. This was the logic of parenthood.

Voor mij is het vermogen van kunst het vermogen om ons wakker te schudden, om ons diep te raken, ons te veranderen. Wat zoeken we als we een roman lezen, een film kijken, naar een muziekstuk luisteren? We zoeken iets wat ons verplaatst, iets waarvan we ons eerder niet bewust waren. We willen onszelf transformeren.

Direi una chiarezza sbalorditiva, una consapevolezza piú profonda di me stessa. L'imperfezione dà lo spunto all'invenzione, all'immaginazione, alla creatività. Stimola. Più mi sento imperfetta, più mi sento viva.

He was increasingly aware these days of how much he owned, of the ongoing effort his life required. The thousands of trips to the grocery store he had made, all the heaping bags of food, first paper, then plastic, now canvas sacks brought from home, unloaded from the trunk of the car and unpacked and stored in cupboards, all to sustain a single body.

Avoiding puddles, stepping over mats of hyacinth leaves that remained in place. Breathing the dank air.

Today when I wake up I stay put. I don't go to the bathroom to weigh myself or to the kitchen to drink a glass of tepid water before preparing the coffeepot. The city doesn't beckon or lend me a shoulder today. Maybe it knows I'm about to leave.

Solitude demands a precise assessment of time, I've always understood this. It's like the money in your wallet: you have to know how much time you need to kill, how much to spend before dinner, what's left over before going to bed. But time seems different here. My walk took an hour, but to me it felt much longer.

Part of the way that I work is to observe.

So rather than someone coming to my stu- dio and saying, like, "Thank you for your time. I'll see you later," and me not knowing why they don't like my work, I understand now why they don't like it.

I think people have certain preconceived notions of certain people that they've never met. And so, that's sort of what I try to work from.

I never appear in any of your work, come to think of it, Calvin [Trillin]. And I look.

Part of my journey is sort of learning the ways that I'm unconsciously blocked and trying to open them up. I'm a complete "work in progress" in that area.