Bloggykins

Don’t get mad. Don’t get even. Do better. Much better. Rise above. Become so engulfed in your own success that you forget it ever happened.

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability… To be alive is to be vulnerable.

Never apologize for burning too brightly or collapsing into yourself every night. That is how galaxies are made.

A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.

It isn’t that I don’t enjoy talking to people, I just hate small talk. I don’t want to talk about your holiday plans or your body clock or your bowel movements. I don’t care. Pretending to care drains me. I want to know what keeps you up at night.

Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you’re alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.

Foreign lands never yield their secrets to a traveller. The best they offer are tantalising snippets, just enough to inflame the imagination. The secrets they do reveal are your own - the ones you have kept from yourself. And this is reason enough to travel, to leave home.

Only someone who is well prepared has the opportunity to improvise.