Writing is the act of saying I

I am reading Joan Didion’s book Let Me Tell You What I Mean, and in the essay I particularly bought the book for, titled Why I Write, Didion writes: In many ways, writing is the act of saying I, of imposing …

Perception is a construct

I've been reading the book The Idea of the Brain by Matthew Cobb. In the chapter titled "Inhibition," he explains how in the late 19th century we understood that the act of seeing is not merely capturing whatever …

A good conversation

In episode #51 of The Knowledge Project, Celeste Headlee (opera singer, radio journalist, public speaker, author) says that a good conversation is like a game of catch: You can’t throw more than you catch. It’s a …

Preintellectual reality

In his book Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig argues that what he calls quality is preintellectual reality. He states that there is a time gap between subjective perception and …

Going back to stone

I am watching a short video on Isamu Noguchi by SFMoMA and I particularly found his remarks on the limitations of the industry relevant. If you want to live and work in an industrialized situation, you have to use …

A way of looking but not joining

I am reading Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion and in this essay titled Last Words, she has written about Hemingway: The very grammar of a Hemingway sentence dictated, or was dictated by, a certain way of …

Means of grasping the self

In The Art of the Novel, Milan Kundera, in conversation with Christian Salmon, discusses the difficulties of grasping the self. He states: All novels, of every age, are concerned with the enigma of the self. As …

An idea of a novel as a tool for noticing

I am reading Joan Didion’s book Let Me Tell You What I Mean, and she reflects on how she wrote her first novel, Run River, over five years, starting in New York. She had parts of the story that she didn’t know …

A cushioned connection

I am reading The Creative Gene by Hideo Kojima, and in his interview with Gen Hoshino, he explains how he wanted players to be able to create connections with one another. In Death Stranding players can leave …

You do not talk about the subject of your work or it vanishes

I am reading Joan Didion’s book Let Me Tell You What I Mean and she wrote about the subject in creative work: This business of the subject is tricky. Whether they are painters or photographers or composers or …

Writer’s block is simply a failure of ego

I am reading Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion and she wrote that “All writing is generated by a certain minimum of ego: you must assume a position of authority in saying that the way I’m writing it is …

The interdependence of all things

In his book The Web of Meaning, Jeremy Lent talks about the interdependence of things and quotes Buddhist teacher and activist Thich Nhat Hanh. I looked up Nhat Hanh and was mesmerized with this passage from his …

I, you, and we

I have been noticing for a long time now that using “I” or “you” while writing about ideas makes a big difference. If I use “you” when writing, it sounds like I am positioning the reader in the situation I am …

Communication is not what sets humans apart

This is a passage from Ray Nayler’s book The Mountain in the Sea. I keep coming across this idea that language enables us to talk about what is not immediately present, and that we are the only species capable of …

The more he saw the more he saw there was to see

At the end of the 40th anniversary edition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the correspondence between Pirsig and his editor is included. In it, Pirsig tells the editor that the book is finished. That …

Shimmering images in Didion’s mind

I’m reading Joan Didion’s essay “Why I Write” in her book Let Me Tell You What I Mean. She describes how certain images get stuck in her head and how she weaves stories around them. She describes these as images …

Years of searching for meaning revealed in a minute

I’m reading Natalie Goldberg’s book Three Simple Lines, in which she describes her visit to Japan as she traces the footsteps of haiku master Basho. Along with her travel companions, she meets Harada and his son, …

Photographs can transcend original intentions and motivations

I am reading How I Take Photographs by Daido Moriyama and in contradiction with his previously noted statement that I should have an idea of what I want to capture, he states that I (the photographer) will …

He was born to look at the world in awe

I am reading Lüzumsuz Adam and in this story called İp Meselesi, Sait Faik Abasıyanık is describing a man—who, I believe, is himself—who is unfit for any job, doesn’t even know where to begin. O, dünyaya hayretle …

True material of knowledge is meaning

I am listening to Maria Popova of Brain Pickings talk with Krista Tippett on her On Being podcast. Popova states that true material of knowledge is meaning and meaning is opposite of trivial. The only thing that …