I hid myself in light
“Sometimes, in my apartment, I turn on both chandeliers, and then I lie down amid all that light, and I just start laughing. A man in hiding, and yet he’s surrounded by chandeliers!
There—I’m revealing the secret to a successful escape. The police searched for me in darkness: but I hid myself in light.”
—Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger, 2008.
anti-type typography
“I am a big fan of this anti-type typography.”
—Steven Heller, “Graphic Content | Hand Lettering”, The New York Times, May 7, 2009.
Painting
“Painting is the silence of thought and the music of sight.”
—Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red, 2001.
within color and outside time
“Before the art of illumination there was blackness and afterward there will also be blackness. Through our colors, paints, art and love, we remember that Allah had commanded us to ‘See’! . . . All great masters, in their work, seek that profound void within color and outside time.”
—Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red, 2001.
What is the meaning of red?
“ ‘My dear master, explain red to somebody who has never known red.’
‘If we touched it with the tip of a finger, it would feel like something between iron and copper. If we took it into our palm, it would burn. If we tasted it, it would be full-bodied, like salted meat. If we took it between our lips, it would fill our mouths. If we smelled it, it’d have the scent of a horse. If it were a flower, it would smell like a daisy, not a red rose.‘. . .
‘What is the meaning of red?’ the blind miniaturist . . . asked again.
‘The meaning of a color is that it is there before us and we see it,’ said the other. ‘Red cannot be explained to he who cannot see.’ ”
—Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red, 2001.
our own eyes
“ ‘After beholding the portraits of the Venetian masters, we realize with horror,’ said my father, ‘that, in painting, eyes can no longer simply be holes in a face, always the same, but must be just like our own eyes, which reflect light like a mirror and absorb it like a well.’ ”
—Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red, 2001.
The mystery is your eye
“No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye.”
—Elizabeth Bowen, 21st Century Dictionary of Quotations, edited by the Princeton Language Institute, 1993.
The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond
“The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be seen if the eye is too near.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 21st Century Dictionary of Quotations, edited by the Princeton Language Institute, 1993.
like quicksilver in the hand
“Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away.”
—Dorothy Parker, 21st Century Dictionary of Quotations, edited by the Princeton Language Institute, 1993.
the only gold
“Love is the only gold.”
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 21st Century Dictionary of Quotations, edited by the Princeton Language Institute, 1993.