“The compelling thing about making art — or making anything, I suppose — is the moment when the vaporous, insubstantial idea becomes a solid there, a thing, a substance in a world of substances. Circe, Nimbue, Artemis, Athena, all the old sorceresses: they must have known the feeling as they transformed mere men into fabulous creatures, stole the secrets of the magicians, disposed armies: ah, look, there it is, the new thing. Call it a swine, a war, a laurel tree. Call it art.” MenWorldLooksArtIdeasWarMomentsFeelingsSecretKnownTreeCreaturesArmyMereSubstanceTransformedNew ThingsCompellingFabulousMagicianArtemisLaurelsAthenaSwineSorceress Author:Audrey Niffenegger
“If all stories are fiction, fiction can be true -- not in detail or fact, but in some transformed version of feeling. If there is a memory of paradise, paradise can exist, in some other place or country dimensionally reminiscent of our own. The sad stories live there too, but in that country, we know what they mean and why they happened. We make our way back from them, finding the way through a bountiful wilderness we begin to understand. Years are nothing: Story conquers all distance.” IfsKnowsWayYearsMeanCountryFactsStoriesFeelingsMemoriesFictionHappenedFindingsDistanceDetailsVersionsBeing TrueConquerParadiseWildernessTransformedSad Story Author:Jayne Anne Phillips
“The white population could not possibly be unaffected by those events - some whites more stubborn in their defense of segregation, but others beginning to think in different ways. And the black population was transformed, having risen up in mass action for the first time, feeling its power, knowing now that if the old order could be shaken it could be toppled.” IfsThinkingWayFirstsDifferentFeelingsActionOrderBlackWhiteKnowingEventsMassFirst TimePopulationDefenseDifferent WaysTransformedStubbornSegregationRisen Author:Howard Zinn
“That overachieving, ambitious, nobody-can-hold-me-down attitude I had, which came from a place of anger and aggression, has transformed into feeling like I will take on the world, but I will do it with an embrace, rather than with my dukes up.” WorldFeelingsAttitudeEmbraceTransformedAmbitiousAggressionDukesHold MeOverachieving Author:Christina Aguilera
“Whenever someone sorrows, I do not say, “forget it,” or “it will pass,” or “it could be worse” - all of which deny the integrity of the painful experience. But I say, to the contrary, “It is worse than you may allow yourself to think. Delve into the depth. Stay with the feeling. Think of it as a precious source of knowledge and guidance. Then and only then will you be ready to face it and be transformed in the process.” ThinkingMayFeelingsFacesProcessForgetReadySourceIntegritySorrowDepthPainfulDenyContraryGuidanceTransformedForget ItPainful Experiences Author:Peter Koestenbaum