The flimsies

Is there something you're dying to attempt, but you manage to talk yourself out of it because it seems like too much work, or will take too much time and discipline? this is your inner flimsy talking. Pat her on the head, but don't cater to her. You'll be happier for it.--Karen Karbo, Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life

Summing up

Life is mostly froth and bubble.
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.
--Adam Lindsay Gordon

Quoted in an obituary of Sandra Lee Sinnard, Chicago Tribune, 11/4/2013

Donna Tartt

"Ms. Tartt is a lifelong keeper of notebooks, and some of the earliest scenes in 'The Goldfinch' were taken from notes dated 1993. 'I was writing for a while not knowing what I was writing,' she said. 'That's the way it's been with all my books. Things come to you and you're not going to know exactly how they fit in. You have to trust in the way they all fit together, that your subconscious knows what you're doing.'"

--New York Times, October 21, 2013, in an article about The Goldfinch

Obituary of an art critic, Arthur C. Danto

"There is a lot of uninspired work in the galleries. But there is so much ingenious work, so much intelligence, so much dedication, and really so much high-mindedness in the art world that, were it shared by the rest of the world, we would have entered a golden age."

Quoted in his obituary, October 28, 2013, New York Times

He avoided negative criticism, which he considered cruel.

From a meditation manual, title forgotten

Restrain your senses from objects that arouse craving or hostility.

It is important to find and follow a path that makes the heart sing.