Typesetting is like film cutting

“Typesetting is like film cutting. The disciplilne of typesetting and printing is good for the writer.”

—Anais Nin, The Diary of Anais Nin, Volume Three, 1939-1944, 1969.

the swimmer—and the bather

“A flesh-colored moon, as ripe as any ‘vine-ripe’ tomato, was
skinny-dipping in a lake of its own light. Leaning back, Lisa watched
it slowly swim out of sight, languid, naked, and unashamed. The
occasional stars were like inflamed eyeballs, spying on the swimmer—and
the bather—through peepholes in an anthracite curtain.”

—Tom Robbins, Villa Incognito, 2003. Lisa is taking a bath, and merging with the universe.

the Unknowable

“As anybody who knows anything about the Unknowable well knows, ‘God’
and ‘gods’ are interchangeable. The exclusivistic patriarchal
Jehovah/Allah freaks are not incorrect then whey insist that there is
but one Supreme Being and that ‘he’ is immutable and absolute. However,
neither are the wide-eyed inclusive pagans and primitives wrong when
they recognize gods of fire alongside gods of rivers; honor a moon
goddess, a crocodile spirit, and deities who reside in, among countless
other places, tree trunks, rain clouds, peyote buttons, and neon
lighting (especially the flashing whites and the greens).”

—Tom Robbins, Villa Incognito, 2003.

A yellow cab

“A yellow cab, like a smoker’s tooth in the cottony mouth of morning, flashed into view.”

—Tom Robbins, Villa Incognito, 2003.

Dogshit Work Wreaks Havoc

supercandid cornflower blue

“He regarded me with his embarrassing eyes, supercandid cornflower
blue, the kind made fashionable by the first wave of technicolor
American filmstars.”

—Martin Amis, Money, 1984.

the low colour of fear

“Alec Llewellyn wore the low colour of fear on his face. It’s yellow, just like they say—yellow, sallow, sowlike, big-pored.”

—Martin Amis, Money, 1984.

the yellow riot of Broadway

“My body craved darkness and silence but the sun’s controls were all
turned up full blast as I screamed for cabs in the yellow riot of
Broadway.”

—Martin Amis, Money, 1984.

I want some semi-colons

“I am that fleeing train that goes screaming past you in the night.
Though travelling nowhere I have hurtled with blind purpose to the very
end of my time. I have lived headlong at a desperate rhythm. I want to
slow down now, and check out the scenery, and put in a stop or two. I
want some semi-colons.”

—Martin Amis, Money, 1984.

Reading takes a long time, though

“Reading takes a long time, though, don’t you find? It takes such a
long time to get from, say, page twenty-one to page thirty. I mean,
first you’ve got page twenty-three, then page twenty-five, then page
twenty-seven, then page twenty-nine, not to mention the even numbers. Then page thirty. Then you’ve got page thirty-one and page thirty-three—there’s no end to it.”

—Martin Amis, Money, 1984.