#tens

Play me something that makes me feel; This soul inside me is made of steel. Brain is breathing, but heart’s not beating And, babe, I need you to make things real. Walk inside me without silence, Kill the past and change the tense. Empty gnawing and the ache is soaring; Take me places that make more sense. ↗

— Melina Marchetta

#soul #steel #tense #change

A writer is one who communicates ideas and emotions people want to communicate but aren't quite sure how, or even if, they should communicate them. ↗

— Criss Jami

#articulation #communication #controversy #disapproval #emotions

Witness also that when we talk about literature, we do so in the present tense. When we speak of the dead, we are not so kind. ↗

— John Green

#literature #past #present #tense #time

The only book worth writing is the book that threatens to kill you. ↗

— Terry Tempest Williams

#kill #only #threatens #worth #writing

Music is something that always lifts my spirits and makes me happy, and when I make music I always hope it will have the same effect on whoever listens to it. ↗

— Aaron Carter

#effect #happy #hope #i #i always

I was utterly convinced that an intellectual could never be anything but an intellectual, was simply not capable of being anything else, that his intellectuality would, sooner or later, erode his faith or erode whatever he'd masked it with . . . For example, intellectuals like to dress themselves up as peasants . . . but it never works. The intellectual's constitution is impervious to such things - it permits only one object of worship - oneself. Generally speaking, an intellectual in the contemporary version is an exceptionally resourceful and, essentially, pitiful being. ↗

— Leonid Borodin

#intellectualism #intellectuals #posturing #pretense #faith

I'll tell you what's wrong!" he roared, "I'm trying to quit smoking!" Then he strode angrily to the truck, leaving her standing there. She blinked her eyes, and slowly a smile stretched her lips. She strolled to the truck and got in. "So, are you homicidal or merely as irritable as a wounded buffalo?" "About halfway in between," he said through clenched teeth. "Anything I can do to help?" His eyes were narrow and intense. "It isn't just the cigarettes. Take off your panties and lock your legs around me, and I'll show you. ↗

— Linda Howard

#cigarettes #quit-smoking #tension #family

Germans grew reluctant to stay in communal ski lodges, fearing they might talk in their sleep. They postponed surgeries because of the lip-loosening effects of anesthetic. Dreams reflected the ambient anxiety. One German dreamed that an SA man came to his home and opened the door to his oven, which then repeated every negative remark the household had made against the government. ↗

— Erik Larson

#fear #germany #nazis #paranoia #tension

When you're going bad, sometimes you need to relax more. I've always been intense. I didn't need to be more intense. ↗

— Brady Anderson

#bad #been #going #i #intense

Simply touching a difficult memory with some slight willingness to heal begins to soften the holding and tension around it. (74) ↗

— Stephen Levine

#grief #healing #healing-the-past #memory #tension