Nick Tranchina

“We’re always rationally explaining and articulating things. But we’re at our most intelligent in the moment just before we start to explain or articulate. Great art occurs—or doesn’t—in that instant. What we turn to art for is precisely this moment, when we “know” something (we feel it) but can’t articulate it because it’s too complex and multiple. But the “knowing” at such moments, though happening without language, is real. I’d say this is what art is for: to remind us that this other sort of knowing is not only real, it’s superior to our usual (conceptual, reductive) way.”
― George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

“Art is the conversation between lovers. Art offers an opening for the heart. True art makes the divine silence in the soul Break into applause.”
― Hafez, The Gift: Poems Inspired by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master

“I am happy even before I have a reason.

I am full of Light even before the sky
Can greet the sun or the moon.

Dear companions,
We have been in love with God
For so very, very long.”
― Hafez, I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy

“Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.”
― Anton Chekhov