[Image: The Ultimate Answer, one of my few successful attempts at (representational) visual art]
From whiskey river:
The black sky was underpinned with long silver streaks that looked like scaffolding and depth on depth behind it were thousands of stars that all seemed to be moving very slowly as if they were about some vast construction work that involved the whole universe and would take all time to complete. No one was paying attention to the sky.
(Flannery O’Connor [source])
…and (italicized portion):
I can often sense the spirit of a place, but I’m not entirely convinced such spirits have an existence separate from their environment. In that sense I’m both believer and skeptic; I’d like to believe, but keep searching for that elusive proof.
I do believe in an everyday sort of magic—the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of syncronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we’re alone. These are magics that many of us experience, parts of a Mystery that can’t—and perhaps shouldn’t—be explained.
I should add that often the magical elements in my books are standing in for elements of the real world, the small and magical-in-their-own-right sorts of things that we take for granted and no longer pay attention to, like the bonds of friendship that entwine our own lives with those of other people and places. When one of my characters becomes aware of a magical element, it might be because the world is wider than we assume it to be, but it might also be a reminder to pay attention to what is here already, hidden only because it’s been forgotten.
(Charles de Lint [source])
…and:
Passing Remark
In scenery I like flat country.
In life I don’t like much to happen.In personalities I like mild colorless people.
And in colors I prefer gray and brown.My wife, a vivid girl from the mountains,
says, “Then why did you choose me?”Mildly I lower my brown eyes —
there are so many things admirable people do not understand.
(William Stafford [source])
