“Words, I’ve come to learn, are pulleys through time. Portals into other minds. Without words, what remains? Indecipherable customs. Strange rites. Blighted hearts. Without words, we’re history’s orphans. Our lives and thoughts erased.” — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“Definition, like poetry, is the project of revivifying the familiar. Making things we think we know seem newly strange. To estrange, according to Hegel, is requisite to practicing consciousness.” — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“We both think love (and language) are interesting but taffylike diversions: soft, simple, perhaps a little salty. If either one takes over your life,… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“In the words of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, “Human nature only really exists in an achieved community of minds.” — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“Words, I’ve come to learn, are pulleys through time. Portals into other minds. Without words, what remains? Indecipherable customs. Strange rites. Blighted hearts. Without… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“Bartleby, just look at me. I wanted to do it once, too. Be a writer. Now I’m near 70, and the only thing I have to show for it is dictionary entries. Don’t get me wrong—I’m incredibly proud of it all. But let me say this, and I’ll say it only once: don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re just on… — Alena Graedon Copy Share
“the 19th century saw the rise of what we came to call linear thought, a way of processing the world that was made possible… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“Definition, like poetry, is the project of revivifying the familiar. Making things we think we know seem newly strange. To estrange, according to Hegel,… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“Why do you think people stopped reading? We read to connect with other minds. But why read when you're busy writing, describing the fine-grained… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“In truth, it was also by design: as much as I loved my mother, she wasn't often the person I sought for comfort in… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“But maybe because I'm from a part of the country where there are more meth labs than drive-throughs, anything harder than cough syrup always… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“I think this had to do with the vintage of his family's money: the older the gold, the less shiny it tends to be.” — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
