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-S.H. Raza, in Out of India

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-The Plains(2022) dir. David Easteal

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-Clothesline(1982) dir. Roberta Cantow

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Obit.(2016) dir. Vanessa Gould

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-A Married Couple(1969) dir. Allan King

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"Of all stupid art the poem is the most stupid, a nearly imperceptible flick of the mop just beneath the surface of the water, an idle flutter of the hand. Very stupid; outside all good sense and discretion, because the poem must be indiscreet or not at all. It should just trail aimlessly in the hospitable water. Floating on the sea or swimming. It must be the sea, no other water. Waves, but not stormy waves, the slight rocking movement. This floating is like a hotel. Nothing interrupts sensation; the body is supported and welcomed by a gentle neutrality. Especially the sea on an overcast morning of light rain, the encompassing pleasure enveloping the skin, salt water and soft water, I will take a bath, I will write all morning in a hotel, I will lack nothing, the soft coarse sheets wind around me, I float in the possibility of drifting unattended, the freedom of floating, no weight, no companion, just the hospitality of the encompassing element. A slight coolness is enough to bring the attention to the sensation of water on skin, of worn cotton on skin. Or perhaps in a café in the village in summer, the bells ringing, the irregular waves of conversation, occasional scraping of chairs on stone pavement, but mostly floating, in the sea or in a hotel. The superior hospitality of the threadbare hotel, the minimal frisson of slight discomfort, as in cool water, which augments the feeling of the skin, the feeling of being only skin, punctuates the sensation of being in the minimum calmly, as in an element. The elemental hospitality of the inferior hotel, felt in the minimal, even ironical welcome, the absence of any exaggeration or luxury that would leave one in its debt, the muteness and reluctance of the clerk: this is the stupidity I crave." -Lisa Robertson, from The Baudelaire Fractal

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-an ailing Nirmala Patwardhan in The World Is Family(2023) dir. Anand Patwardhan

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"You cant think how I depend upon you, and when you're not there the colour goes out of my life, as water from a sponge; and I merely exist, dry and dusty. This is the exact truth: but not a very beautiful illustration of my complete adoration of you; and longing to sit, even say nothing, and look at you."

-Virginia Woolf, in a letter to Vanessa Bell, dt. 2 Oct. 1937

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"You do know how much you help me. I cant show it and I feel so stupid and such a wet blanket often but I couldnt get on at all if it werent for you --"

-Vanessa Bell, in a letter to Virginia Woolf, dt. 4 Feb. 1938

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-Miloš Forman in Chytilová Versus Forman(1982) dir. Vera Chytilová

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“I’ll tell you an anecdote that played a role in my life. I was about twenty-two and one day I was in a terrible state. We were living in Sibiu, a city in the provinces where I spent my whole youth, and where my father was the priest of the city. That day only my mother and I were home, and-when I remember things, I remember them very precisely, I even remember the hour, it’s very strange-I think it was around two in the afternoon, everyone else had gone out. All of a sudden, I had a fantastic fit of despair, I threw myself on the sofa and said, “I can’t take it anymore.” And my mother said this: “If I had known, I would have had an abortion.” That made an extraordinary impression on me. It didn’t hurt me, not at all. But later I said, “That was very important. I’m simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously?” Because, in effect, it’s all without substance.”

— Emil Cioran, in an interview

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-John Cassavetes, from John Cassavetes: Interviews ed. Gabriella Oldham

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-John Cassavetes, from John Cassavetes: Interviews ed. Gabriella Oldham

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-John Cassavetes, from John Cassavetes: Interviews ed. Gabriella Oldham

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Interviewer: What most troubles you about the Internet?

William T. Vollmann: Well, first of all, I think the notion that there are virtual communities of interest is a fruitful one in some ways, but it’s also very dangerous, because it means that you are even more removed from your immediate surroundings; your physical center becomes less important, you have less invested in it, and—it’s like your mobile phone—you’re less likely to become friends with your neighbors, and I think that is contributing to the decay and loneliness of American society. The second thing that I hate about the Internet and mobile phones as well—and one of the reasons that the paths to individuality we potentially have are being abused—is that suddenly everyone becomes infinitely interruptible. And I think that you can’t, really, get anywhere: you can’t think about who you are, and what you’re doing and where you should be going, if you can be interrupted every second. That’s why I don’t have email, I don’t have a mobile phone, I don’t have a fax; I don’t watch television for the same reason: I hate the interruptions, the commercials. On the Internet you get exposed to all kinds of ads and, in the meantime, people who mean you no good are tracking your movements, your buying patterns, your interests, and making it all the more likely that the interruptions in your life will be more and more seductive, therefore more and more effective, and keep you from being yourself. 

[.... ] And of course we always do have a choice. We have the choice to say no, we don’t have the choice to say yes, sometimes. If you’re in a relationship with another person, let’s say, (and) both of you are decent people, if one says “no,” let’s say to having sex, or one says “no” to continuing the relationship, that’s it. No is stronger than yes. It takes two to say yes, but only one to say no. And I think that’s true really of any social contract: when you get to the point where you want to say no to the Internet and you’re not allowed to say no to it, that’s going to be really, really sinister and horrible, but fortunately we’re not quite there yet. My publishers are always saying, “What do you mean you don’t have email?” And they get upset, but what can they do?

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-Un prince/A Prince(2023) dir. Pierre Creton

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“The kind of reading and writing that I value is a dying art. While it lasts and while I last, I intend to write sentences that are beautiful in their own right, to write paragraphs that respect those sentences while conveying thought: and to arrange those paragraphs in works that promote love and understanding for people whom others with my background may despise or fail to know. I enjoy reading books that have beautiful sentences, and it makes me feel real good if I can try to create something that’s beautiful, even if it’s sad or on an ugly subject. If the thing is well put together, it makes me feel good."

-William T. Vollmann, quoted in Conversations with William T. Vollmann ed. Daniel Lukes