Randall Malcolm

“Who wouldn’t aspire, whatever one’s limitations, to create something that could stand unembarrassed beside a work of genius?”
― Michael Cunningham, The Hours / Mrs. Dalloway: A Novel

“The natural world would always be there to save me from suffocating in my human problems.”
― Jim Harrison, Off to the Side: A Memoir

“I’m no longer inclined to get upset with these experiences though occasionally there is a temporary loss of balance when you have the vivid illusion that you’re actually seeing time herself in a clearing in the forest or, more often, on a riverbank while staring at the passing water. Another more frequent experience, say two or three times a summer, is the strong illusion of seeing holographically. You walk through a landscape and you see all sides of it at once. This is particularly hard to describe in that you’re both within and outside the sensations of your body at the same time, a plainly impossible thing though the mind can arrange it.”
― Jim Harrison, Off to the Side: A Memoir

“I suspect that at its best your education’s main motive is to fuel your curiosity and teach you how to find out things for yourself. This is adequately simpleminded to cover the situation. Nothing much is remembered without the emotion of curiosity. Even your dogs and cats are full of it. You are unlikely to feel emotion for material unless your teacher has it. The educationists seem to think in terms of methodical steps but a teacher brimming with passion for the subject is what actually works.”
― Jim Harrison, Off to the Side: A Memoir