Sarah Emily Miano > Quotes

“Consider yourself and the cello. As you play the music moves out to the listener, and also enters the core of your own being, for somehow you are tuned to the cello. Well, I am persuaded that this is because you are a chord. I am a chord. Our DNA dictates our physicality-made up of billions of little notes-on a basic level. Add to that our geography, background et cetera, and you have your original score. Life is the layering of chords, but the underlying one that we are will never change. This brings us to string theory and love. Our personal chord resonates with the personal ones of others, and sometimes we encounter another person who is completely harmonious with us. It is a dominant, overwhelming attraction on the DNA level. However, such a person can appear to be our opposite-and that's where this 'opposites attract' notion comes from-because they have tuned their chord in a different way. In reality, we are attracted to the person we have chosen not to become, an alternative adjustment to a chord that is nearly the same as our own. The clashing portions of the chords sounding together advance the richness of it. So when you make love you aren't expressing emotions or showing affection, you are merging melodies. You are players in the same symphony.”
― Sarah Emily Miano, Encyclopaedia Of Snow

“Ice vs. fire; free choice vs. necessity; weight vs. lightness; emptiness vs. meaning...speaking of emptiness, there was a time today when my whole body felt completely devoid of life and utterly without meaning. A character in one of Edith Wharton's novels says that "the real loneliness comes from all these kind faces who only ask one to pretend..." That is how I felt today, waiting anxiously for my afternoon pick-up, only to be let down, and later, facing the world (as if everything was okay inside). ”
― Sarah Emily Miano, Encyclopaedia Of Snow

“...most art mistakes itself for the universal when it is momentary”
― Sarah Emily Miano, Encyclopaedia Of Snow

“I left the house and headed for the Lauriergracht, where Van Hoogstraten had taken up residence since leaving Vienna and his post as court painter specializing in optical deceits. He currently made peepshow boxes constructed of wood, with one missing side that allowed light to enter as if through a shuttered window, and two small holes for viewing the painted panels of scenes inside. I had never seen one of these peepshows personally, and hoped he would have at least one to show me.”
― Sarah Emily Miano, Van Rijn

“The apothecary holds out a large volume with the title ‘De Defabrica’. Taking the book, the painter runs his fingers across the leather cover, then lifts it open.
“Where did you find it?”
“When? Last week. It’s the first anatomy book since Vesalius, written by Adriaen van den Spieghel.”
“No, where?”
As the painter flips open the thick pages, he finds many illustrations and detailed fragments of body parts he has never even heard of before.
“I have many sources, young man.” On hearing a bell – a customer has arrived – he advances towards the door. “Look it over, but be sure to return it.”
― Sarah Emily Miano, Van Rijn

“Such command and honesty! Your figures are full of emotion, for instance, here – points at the panel – the figure of Judas on his knees, wringing his hands in self-hatred and pleading for forgiveness… Who would have thought that someone your age, a miller at that, could put so much into a figure!”
― Sarah Emily Miano, Van Rijn

“My shell collection

Here are my shells, orderly to the eye, mysterious to the mind. Some are rough and grainy, others are soft and pearly. Mine are all empty, but out in the sea there are empty ones too – as many as there are full. When the creatures emerge, they leave part of themselves behind. That is why I think of these spirals as living though they are asleep in their forms.”
― Sarah Emily Miano, Van Rijn