#blood

Wise Blood has reached the age of ten and is still alive. My critical powers are just sufficient to determine this, and I am gratified to be able to say it. The book was written with zest and, if possible, it should be read that way. It is a comic novel about a Christian malgré lui, and as such, very serious, for all comic novels that are any good must be about matters of life and death. Wise Blood was written by an author congenitally innocent of theory, but one with certain preoccupations. That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for some readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no great consequence. For them, Hazel Motes's integrity lies in his trying with such vigor to get rid of the ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of his mind. For the author, Hazel's integrity lies in his not being able to do so. Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. It is a mystery and one which a novel, even a comic novel, can only be asked to deepen. (Preface to second edition, 1962) ↗

— Flannery O'Connor

#wise-blood #age

Writing was like digging coal. I sweat blood. The spell is on me. ↗

— Zane Grey

#coal #digging #i #like #me

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood? ↗

— Carl Jung

#books #contained #fully #history #lives

I have had so many great moments, but I would have to say that dancing the Swan in 'Swan Lake' was such a unique and passionate experience for me. It was such bloody hard work, even at that very early age, that I would not want to try to replicate it again now. ↗

— William Kempe

#age #bloody #dancing #early #early age

I think its so good for boxing when a new guy or new blood as we call it, makes a big statement. ↗

— George Foreman

#blood #boxing #call #good #guy

So why sign your name in blood for more? It seemed like a sensible arrangement for me. I didn't sell large numbers of records and the record company paid advances they rarely recouped. ↗

— David Knopfler

#arrangement #blood #company #i #large

Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the life blood of real civilization. ↗

— G. M. Trevelyan

#civilization #curiosity #disinterested #intellectual #intellectual curiosity

When they talk about music getting in your blood, I understand exactly what they're talking about, because that is me. ↗

— Travis Tritt

#because #blood #exactly #getting #i

Christ made the bread the sacrament of his body only: wherefore as the bread is no similitude of his blood, so am I not bound or ought to affirm, that his blood is there present. ↗

— William Tyndale

#am #blood #body #bound #bread

There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their hearts are bloodless absolutes. ↗

— John Updike

#dear #hearts #new #pleasing #rocks