“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
“She had blue skin,
Shel Silverstein, Everything On It
And so did he.
He kept it hid
And so did she.
They searched for blue
Their whole life through,
Then passed right by—
And never knew.”
“I share with painters the desire
Nikki Giovanni, Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day
To put a three-dimensional picture
On a One-dimensional surface.”
“The truth was that practicing writing meant practicing sitting down, sitting still, and my body did not ever want to be still. When it had to be still, all it wanted to do was imagine dunking with two hands or kissing a girl who loved me. Sitting still, just as much as any other part of writing, took practice. Most days, my body did not want to practice, but I convinced it that sitting still and writing were a path to memory.”
Kiese Laymon, Heavy (Page 86)
“A lot of what disturbs us from our tranquility is not literal noise. It’s not the pinging of our phone. It’s when we pull up our phone and see what other people are doing, when we have that FOMO or jealousy or we feel inadequate that we’re not accomplishing or achieving the way they are. Because what we’re forgetting is the path that we’re on, we forget what we’re trying to do, we forget what’s important to us.”
Ryan Holiday
“For the first time in my life, I realized telling the truth was way different from finding the truth, and finding the truth had everything to do with revisiting and rearranging words. Revisiting and rearranging words didn’t only require vocabulary; it required will, and maybe courage. Revised word patterns were revised thought patterns. Revised thought patterns shaped memory. I knew, looking at all those words, that memories were there. I just had to rearrange, add, subtract, sit, and sift until I found a way to free the memory.”
Kiese Laymon, Heavy (Page 86)
Kiese Laymon, Heavy (Page 26)“‘I think I want to lose weight. Can you help me? I be sweating too much when I try to talk to people I don’t want to be sweaty around.’
‘You mean girls, Kie?’
‘I guess I mean girls.’
‘If someone doesn’t like you for you,’ you said, ‘they are not worth sweating around. Save your sweat for someone who values it.'”
“Some days, the tears just be pouring out my eyes, Kie. But Grandmama is too heavy to blow away or drown in tears made because somebody didn’t see me as a somebody worth respecting. You hear me? Ain’t nothing in the world worse than looking at your children drowning, knowing ain’t nothing you can do because you scared that if you get to trying to save them, they might see that you can’t swim either. But I am okay. You hear me?”
Kiese Laymon’s Grandmother, Heavy (Page 8)
“You slept on a slender pallet that night in Vegas. I was supposed to be sleeping next to you but I couldn’t because I was so happy. Your snores reminded me that you were alive. If you were alive and next to me, I had everything in the world I could ever want.”
Kiese Laymon, Heavy (Page 3)
“It ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.”
Bruce Springsteen, Badlands | Read Matt’s Blog on This Quote Here ➜
“To succeed in the ‘outer world,’ you must discipline yourself to focus and concentrate, work hard at your job, take continuous action toward your goals, and become better and more capable as you move onward and upward in life. To succeed in the ‘inner world,’ however, requires almost the opposite abilities. To achieve inner peace, you must discipline yourself to let go of everything that can disrupt your sense of inner peace and contentment.”
Brian Tracy, No Excuses! (Page 286)
“If you want to have a friend, you must first be a friend. If you want people to like you, you should first like them. If you want people to respect you, you should first respect them. If you want to impress others, you should first be impressed by them. In this way, by approaching people indirectly, you appeal to their deepest subconscious needs.”
Brian Tracy, No Excuses! (Page 276)
“If your children lie to you, who has made them afraid to tell the truth?”
Unknown, via No Excuses! (Page 255)
“Love is by far the most important thing of all. It casts out fear. It is the fulfilling of the law. It covers a multitude of sins. Love is absolutely invincible. There is no difficulty that enough love will not cure; no disease that enough love will not heal; no door that enough love will not open; no gulf that enough love will not bridge; no wall that enough love will not throw down; no sin that enough love will not redeem. It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake; a sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all. If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world.”
Emmet Fox, via No Excuses! (Page 256)
“On a regular basis, you should sit down with your spouse and later with your children to have the courage to ask them these four questions: (1) Is there anything that I am doing that you would like me to do more of? (2) Is there anything that I am doing that you would like me to do less of? (3) Is there anything that you would like me to start doing that I am not doing today? (4) Is there anything that I am doing that you would like me to stop doing altogether? When you have the courage and discipline to ask these four questions of your spouse and your children on a regular basis, you will be amazed at the quality and depth of the answers you receive. You will get continual guidance on how you can modify and adjust your behaviors to maintain higher levels of harmony, happiness, and love with your spouse and the other members of your family.”
Brian Tracy, via No Excuses! (Page 255)
“There is a rule that says that every large problem was once a small problem that could have been solved easily and inexpensively at that time. Sometimes, the best strategy is to ‘nip it in the bud.’ When it is clear that there is a problem and a solution, do what has to be done—and do it quickly.”
Brian Tracy, via No Excuses! (Page 207)
“In medicine, they say that ‘accurate diagnosis is half the cure.’ Therefore, you need to ask, ‘What exactly is the problem?’ It is absolutely amazing how several people can become upset about a problem in an organization, but every one of them has a different idea or definition of the exact nature of the problem they’re facing. Your job is to achieve clarity and to get everyone to agree on the definition of the problem before you move on to the business of solving it.”
Brian Tracy, via No Excuses! (Page 204)
“Setting priorities requires setting posteriorities as well. A priority is something that you do more of and sooner, whereas a posteriority is something you do less of or later. You are probably already overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time. Because of this, for you to embark on a new task, you must discontinue an old task. Getting into something new requires getting out of another activity. Before you commit to a new undertaking, ask yourself, ‘What am I going to stop doing so that I have enough time to work on this new task?'”
Brian Tracy, via No Excuses! (Page 193)