currently reading: virgin, an untouched history by hanne blank

thoroughly researched and wittily written. the author is funny but even with her snarky puns and in-depth writing on the social, economic, religious, and scientific histories on the subject, i’m finding that virginity itself really isn’t all that compelling. it makes me sad to think that lives were lost, wars waged, religions formed, etc. over something so dull.
06.13.10 /22:05
~   Zadie Smith
White Teeth
~   Evelyn Waugh 
Brideshead Revisited

(via fyeahliteraryquotes)
~   Janette Oke
Love Comes Softly
~   Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

teach yourself jamaican patois with dr. seuss.
(via the world’s best ever)

kara walker
(via tobia:thunderbeast)
03.03.10 /16:45/ 18

tobia:

1 When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.

3 Don’t romanticise your “vocation”. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no “writer’s lifestyle”. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

4 Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can’t do aren’t worth doing. Don’t mask self-doubt with contempt.

Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.

6 Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won’t make your writing any better than it is.

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.

8 Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Don’t confuse honours with achievement.

10 Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.

(Link and words found by youmightfindyourself)
(Link Edit & Image (AFP/Getty Images) added by yours truly)

~   Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun
~   Flannery O’Connor
Canvas  by  andbamnan