John R. Stilgoe > Quotes

“The whole concatenation of wild and artificial things, the natural ecosystem as modified by people over the centuries, the build environment layered over layers, the eerie mix of sounds and smells and glimpses neither natural nor crafted- all of it is free for the taking, for the taking in. Take it, take it in, take in more every weekend, every day, and quickly it becomes the theater that intrigues, relaxes, fascinates, seduces, and above all expands any mind focused on it. Outside lies utterly ordinary space open to any casual explorer willing to find the extraordinary. Outside lies unprogrammed awareness that at times becomes directed serendipity. Outside lies magic.”
― John Stilgoe

“In the first two decades of the twentieth century, experts advised men to have their kitchens painted apple-green. The experts believed that apple-green quieted nervous people, and especially wives beginning to think of suffrage, of careers beyond the home. Today the explorer of color schemes finds in old houses and apartments the apple-green paint still gracing the inside of the cabinet under the kitchen sink, and the hallways of old police stations and insane asylums.”
― John R. Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

“The small town endures as the national attic of American social and spatial consciousness, a sort of frame through which further vistas are invariably viewed and twisted to fit.”
― John R. Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

“Photography threatens because photography implies notice and permanent record.”
― John R. Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

“I wonder if more students would do better in elementary and high school if teachers taught more about individual exploration of subjects and less about sliding smoothly along observational ruts. Exploration is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
― John R. Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

“Ordinary exploration begins in the juiciest sort of indecision, in deliberate, then routine fits of absence of mind... Exploring requires the cloak of invisibility bicyclists and walkers take for granted.”
― John R. Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

“I also hope this book makes each reader aware that his or her personal observations and encounters in the most ordinary of landscapes can and will raise questions and issues routinely avoided by programmed educational and entertainment authorities.”
― John R. Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

“Exploration is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
― John R. Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places