Friday, March 5, 2010

Weekend reading

I have a terrible habit of reading three or four books at the same time. The current apples of my eye are:



Why write?


“I write because I have an innate need to write! I write because I can’t do normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can partake in real life only by changing it. I write because I want others, all of us, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at all of you. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life’s beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story, but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but – just as in a dream – I can’t quite get there. I write to be happy.”


Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2006 (excerpt from The Australian Financial Review Friday Dec 16 2006).

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Cat fervour






Louis Wain flips the crazy cat lady stereotype on its head with his long and slow demise into mental illness, which can be traced through his illustrations of his favourite subjects, cats.

Asleep with my eyes open


Sometimes work seems too early in the morning.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

To me, you are wonderful





Jim Goldberg, turning drudgery into something exquisite.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010