Category: writing

• Simone Weil on attention

  Mar 4

  ‘L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. (Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.)’ In a letter to Joë Bousquet, 13 April… more ›

• Robert M. Pirsig on uncertainty

  Mar 3

  ‘And I’m sure that in any creative project you really can’t perceive what the end is going to be, unless it is a very small thing you’re doing.’ Robert M.… more ›

• In praise of Zadie Smith

  Dec 24

  In the quiet period of the year’s end, I am listening to Zadie Smith, who has been speaking to several podcasts about her new book of essays, Dead and Alive.… more ›

• Making peace with the past

  Nov 7

  For a writer (or an artist of any kind) there’s only one thing worse than being unknown and that is being known for one book (or song, or film, or… more ›

• Responsibility and Joy

  Sep 30

  One reason for starting a new site, and one where words take first place, is to allow my thinking to breathe, expand and explore. I don’t know where it will… more ›