“I think these are some of the common themes [of my work]: a) life is hard, brutal, capricious and unfair, b) sometimes there is a benefit to seeing it clearly, and acknowledging it truthfully…, and c) other times it is best to find something to laugh about, lest despair crush one completely. I find a lot of humor in shocking or so-called taboo things: castration, excrement, violence (usually self-inflicted or inflicted on the narrator, "[Martin] Scorsese" being an exception), sex and sexual perversions… etc.”

— John S. Hall

Interview by Mark Prindle, 2003 ( link http://www.markprindle.com/hall-i.htm)
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John S. Hall 55

Poet, author, singer, lawyer 1960

Doreen Virtue (1958) American writer

“We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”

Clive Staples Lewis book The Abolition of Man

The Abolition of Man (1943)
Context: And all the time — such is the tragi-comedy of our situation — we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more “drive”, or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or “creativity”. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.

“I think I understand. Before there can be disdain, there must be pride.
One day I will find something to be proud of, and then I will find this taste of disdain, and see if it suits me. Should I not think this, being my father's son?
And yet, I do not. Pride needs no claws, no scaled armour about itself. Not every virtue must be a weapon.
These thoughts are my own. I will not crush them.”

Steven Erikson book Forge of Darkness

Forge of Darkness (2013)

“It is a terrible, but also tremendous time. Personally I find it moreover so important for my art to live now... These times force you to think over a lot and work very hard, in Nature now a strong creative force is working.”

Jacoba van Heemskerck (1876–1923) Dutch painter

translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
(original version, written by Jacoba in German:)Es ist eine schreckliche, doch auch eine gewaltige Zeit, ich persönlich empfinde es auch für meine Kunst so wichtig, jetzt zu leben.. .In dieser Zeit muss man viel denken und viel arbeiten, in der Natur ist jetzt eine so grosse Schaffenskraft.
In a letter of Jacoba, late 1914; as cited by A. Behne, in 'der Krieg und die künstlerische Produktion', in 'Die Umschau', Jan / März 1915
Jacoba is partly referring to World War 1. The Netherlands kept itself out of this war, but many Belgium refugees entered the country
1910's

“I want to block some common misunderstandings about "understanding": In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about the word "understanding."”

John Rogers Searle (1932) American philosopher

Minds, Brains and Programs (1980)

“It's an unfair position, so you can do one of two things: just shut up, which is something I don't find easy, or just learn an awful lot very fast, which is what I tried to do.”

Jane Fonda (1937) American actress and activist

Leo Lerman, Jane Fonda Talks About. Juxtaposition, 1971, said in reference to media reactions to her learning about Indian affairs.

“I think people often try to find through sex things that are much easier to find in other ways.”

Patricia Highsmith book The Price of Salt

Source: The Price of Salt

“Tessa’s hilarious… I think it’s one of the things that gets overlooked because she’s always so pulled together, but she has the best sense of humor. It’s been the joy of my life to have as many laughs as we’ve had along the way.”

Scott Moir (1987) Canadian figure skater

Scott Moir, quoted in "Scott & Tessa Say Their Relationship Is “So Much Better” than People Imagine" http://www.flare.com/celebrity/scott-tessa-say-their-relationship-is-so-much-better-than-people-imagine/ (26 February 2018)
Partnership with Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir about Virtue

Tessa Virtue (1989) Canadian ice dancer

“I don't like to be my own audience, I find that being my own audience, being in the audience, makes me self-conscious, basically. So I tune in sometimes, with the sound off, to check it out and I back up to it. In the future I will look at it when some time has passed.”

Madeline Kahn (1942–1999) American actress

Charlie Rose, (December 16, 1996) "Charlie Rose - An interview with Madeline Kahn" http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/5799, Charlie Rose, PBS

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John S. Hall 55

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