
“I did not know how to paint or even what to paint, but I knew I had to begin.”
Source: CAT'S EYE.
Source: Solaris (1961), Ch. 14: "The Old Mimoid", p. 204 (final lines)
Context: I hoped for nothing. And yet I lived in expectation. Since she had gone, that was all that remained. I did not know what achievements, what mockery, even what tortures still awaited me. I knew nothing, and I persisted in the faith that the time of cruel miracles was not past.
“I did not know how to paint or even what to paint, but I knew I had to begin.”
Source: CAT'S EYE.
About his wife Nargis’s past love life. Nargis-Sunil Dutt: A real life romance, 20 October 2003, 6 December 2013, Rediff.com http://www.rediff.com/movies/2003/oct/20dutt.htm,
We all are one, whichever religion we belong to
On managing Liverpool FC ( Source http://imdb.com/name/nm0197910/bio)
Foge-me pouco a pouco a curta vida
(se por caso é verdade que inda vivo);
vai-se-me o breve tempo d'ante os olhos;
choro pelo passado e quando falo,
se me passam os dias passo e passo,
vai-se-me, enfim, a idade e fica a pena.
"Foge-me pouco a pouco a curta vida" http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poem/item/8451, tr. Landeg White in The Collected Lyric Poems of Luis de Camoes (2016), p. 330
Lyric poetry, Sestina
“Nevertheless, I still don't know what the voice is saying, or even what language it's in.”
Livewire interview (2002)
Context: It's odd but even when I was a kid, I would write about "old and other times" as though I had a lot of years behind me. Now I do, so there is a difference in the weight of memory. When you're young, you're still "becoming", now at my age I am more concerned with "being". And not too long from now I'll be driven by "surviving", I'm sure. I kind of miss that "becoming" stage, as most times you really don't know what's around the corner. Now, of course, I've kind of knocked on the door and heard a muffled answer. Nevertheless, I still don't know what the voice is saying, or even what language it's in.
Diary-note of Boudin, 3 December, 1856; as cited in the description of his painting 'Sky, Setting Sun, Bushes in Foreground' http://www.muma-lehavre.fr/en/collections/artworks-in-context/eugene-boudin/boudin-skies, by the Muma-museum, Le Havre
A quote from Boudin's personal diary sheds remarkable light on a small group of his sky studies
1850s - 1870s
It just takes some people longer than others. :-
[199809230518.WAA19312@wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998