Quotes

You will hear thunder and remember me,
And think: she wanted storms. The rim
Of the sky will be the colour of hard crimson,
And your heart, as it was then, will be on fire.

If you can manipulate your own consciousness, and perhaps that of others, (which is surely something that all artists are trying to do, wether they’re magicians or not) then you will have effected an act of magic.

[In] the 1950s and the 1960s, which was the biggest growth period in American history, financial institutions were regulated. The New Deal regulations were in place and there were no financial crisis, none …. Starting in the 1970s it changed pretty radically. There were decisions made – not laws of nature – to reconstruct the economy.

When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your unconscious identification with the stream of thinking.

Many people seem to think it foolish, even superstitious, to believe that the world could still change for the better. And it is true that in winter it is sometimes so bitingly cold that one is tempted to say, ‘What do I care if there is a summer; its warmth is no help to me now.’ Yes, evil often seems to surpass good. But then, in spite of us, and without our permission, there comes at last an end to the bitter frosts. One morning the wind turns, and there is a thaw. And so I must still have hope.

Artist becomes shaman. Shaman becomes artist. Either one is The Way. In the transcendent endgame, however, we are engineers of enlightenment. To be enlightened is to engineer timelessly.

Why single out Israel? Because Israel is the only serial human rights abuser that enjoys consistent and enthusiastic support by all the liberal democracies of the North.

This support gives the Israeli state an impunity that Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe or Burma, to name but four, do not enjoy because their human rights abuses are all—rightly and however unprincipled—attacked by the major powers.

Israel alone is allowed to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity; it alone is allowed to repeatedly ignore United Nations resolutions without any opposition from northern governments and major institutions.

When Stuyvesant says that women’s dress and bodies are distraction in a learning environment, for example, what they’re really saying is that they’re distracting to male students. The default student we are concerned about – the student whose learning we want to ensure is protected – is male. Never mind how “distracting” it is to be pulled from class, humiliated, and made to change outfits – publicly degrading young women is small price to pay to make sure that a boy doesn’t have to suffer through the momentary distraction of glancing at a girl’s legs. When this dentist in Iowa can fire his assistant for turning him on – even though she’s done absolutely nothing wrong – the message again is that it’s men’s ability to work that’s important.

And when rape victims are blamed for the crime committed against them, the message is the same: This is something that happened to the perpetrator, who was driven to assault by a skirt, or a date, or the oh-so-sexy invitation of being passed out drunk. Women have infringed on their right to exist without being turned on. (Ta-Nehisi Coates describes this centering of male sexual vulnerability quite well.) Our very presence is a disruption of the male status quo.

Never belong to a crowd; Never belong to a nation; Never belong to a religion; Never belong to a race. Belong to the whole existence. Why limit yourself to small things? When the whole is available.

I’m with Austin Osman Spare. When people asked him if he was a black or a white magician, he replied: ‘Magic is colourful’.