Some people never learn the value of loyalty. They die faster.

living, breathing, impermeable universes.

the numbness that comes with time.

'sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me' biggest lie ever.

my art is no one's weapon but my own.

shelter can be a person.

people that could have been.

a highly provocative and judgmental book about nothing.

it's amazing how someone who's bored will continue to remain useless.

the flowers I thought weren't real are withering.

a useless generation

who needs prozac when you have puppies

some people don't know what's needed of them until it's too late.

the rules are changing
or at least
they're becoming more obvious

sometimes you just have to fall asleep on a ladder.

do not trust a fairy godmother that cackles.

to be found sleeping in a rowboat.

sneezers.

a series of noncommittal looks.

it was the future before the future was the future

rant and run

only interesting people take stories as currency

a purse full of trinkets

it's hard to smile when people are lying to themselves.

a dreamscape in chaos.

puddle wars.

olive overdose

someone who values expression and distrusts authority shouldn't keep an address

“Ships that pass in the night, and speak to each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

i hate going shopping because the things I want don't exist yet.

it's lonely in the present when you live in the future.

brides with bad posture.

conversations in a windstorm matter more

patience is watching people neglect good advice

eleven words came first

Jumped the train, drank the kool aid, went to town

too composed for freestyle

However vague they are, dreams have a way of concealing themselves and leave us no peace until they are translated into reality, like seeds germinating underground, sure to sprout in their search for the sunlight.

- Lin Yutang

caves and castles.

Best Mark Twain Quotes

An author values a compliment even when it comes from a source of doubtful competency

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
Mark Twain

I can live for two months on a good compliment.
Mark Twain

If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later.
Mark Twain

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one.

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one - keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others.

When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.

When red-haired people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

day after day until the rain came.

even purgatory has its games.

It's hard to take responsibility for things you wish you didn't inspire.

Sometimes you write the characters you are meant to become.

how much you live depends on how you see life

i don't know, roll around in the moss, breathe mist from waterfalls or something.

strangers in the wild.

like talking to ghosts

if it's cold, dance.

boom operators have some things in common with oppressed housewives.

"Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a
Stranger,
Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you" - Hafiz

But that shit never happens.

another round of friends.

raw and unpolished

if you don't know what's running the system, you're being run by the system

if you don't know what's running the system, you're being run by the system

a master of small things can be a master of great things.

don't confuse street lamps for moonlight.

survival is not a waiting game.

bubble warfare

why bother with love when you're going to die anyway

people who don't know how to fight for what they want
or is it that they don't know what they want at all?

by soap i meant "soup". #learntoreadyourownhandwriting #groceryshoppingfail

peace is only the moment before you exhale.

weddings, wars and the winds of transformation.

home is where you don't have to put your foot in the sink.

friends capable of retrieving one from the infinite universe of the self.

the heart among some people is a battleground

people who don't cherish the living haven't really mourned the dead.

hermits on skyscrapers

swallowed whole by the sea of dreams.

people whose money have no value.

not a person, an infinite universe.

Jane Austen's mother.

industries that profit from suffering.

protector and protected.

California Muslims would give British Muslims a heart attack.

the future comes in a rush.

in a tower engraved with ancient names and verses.

if you quit, you don't get to stick around for the beautiful moments that make it worth it.

fear of NGOs and foreign intervention as a threat to sovereignty is a now a sign of closed mindedness and psychological insecurity in light of an imperial past, destructive to growth and the equality emerging from connectedness.  

hollow patriots who poison America's gift with racism and condescension.  

the nation state was a horrible idea that locked people to identity with borders.

intelligent people with poor character.

people underestimate the value of friendship.

why people in power feel entitled while the disenfranchised are overly self-critical.

extroverts who are really introverts at heart.

At the threshold of a new stage of life it seems everything that preceded was just the prologue of a greater story.

"The Tao works to use the excess, and gives to that which is depleted. The way of people is to take from the depleted, and give to those who already have an excess."
-Lao Tzu

The people you call and the people who call you.

The Lovers Creed.

Friends among enemies.

I can run through the sprinklers better than you.

being human is so uncomfortable.

It is cheaper to get knocked up than to adopt.

work becomes a thousand times more interesting when a ten year old takes notice.

sometimes intuition feels like the pull of destiny.

most women build community. i build counsel.

a hope like eggshells.

never underestimate the power of humor in dark times.

it is possible for a guitar to succeed where words may fail.

either imprisoned or liberated by a definition.

sometimes it is necessary to have a solo dance party in your corolla.

inspiration is a dangerous thing.

the trouble with making good food is it's gone faster than it takes to cook.

red red ink

always a wizard and never a lady

the club of basketcase democracies

a car so fast it can outrun destiny

a rising spiral but never a closed circle.

a field in springtime.

someone who many people talk about but few people care about.

an idea can never replace the light of a person.

nation states are so 20th century.

a hero one day, an outlaw the next.

I Have No Power

I have no power to change you
or explain your ways
Never believe a man can change a woman
Those men are pretenders
who think
that they created woman
from one of their ribs
Woman does not emerge from a man's rib's, not ever,
it's he who emerges from her womb
like a fish rising from depths of water
and like streams that branch away from a river
It's he who circles the sun of her eyes
and imagines he is fixed in place

I have no power to tame you
or domesticate you
or mitigate your first instincts
This task is impossible
I've tested my intelligence on you
also my dumbness
Nothing worked with you, neither guidance
nor temptation
Stay primitive as you are

I have no power to break your habits
for thirty years you have been like this
for three hundred years
a storm trapping in a bottle
a body by nature sensing the scent of a man
assaults it by nature
triumphs over it by nature

Never believe what a man says about himself
that he is the one who makes the poems
and makes the children
It is the woman who writes the poems
and the man who signs his name to them
It is the woman who bears the children
and the man who signs at the maternity hospital
that he is the father

I have no power to change your nature
my books are of no use to you
and my convictions do not convince you
nor does my fatherly council do you any good
you are the queen of anarchy, of madness, of belonging
to no one
Stay that way
You are the tree of femininity that grows in the dark
needs no sun or water
you the sea princess who has loved all men
and loved no one
slept with all men… and slept with no one
you are the Bedouin woman who went with all the tribes
and returned a virgin
Stay that way.' -Nizar Kabbani

"Your little states are made of paper, and my words are matches" - Nizar Kabbani

to turn to water in someone's hands.

hijab burn (n. colloquial): dark pigmentation of the skin from the bridge of the nose to the chin caused by the sun, sparing the eyes and forehead due to the hooded effect of the hijab.  also, an episode of directions becoming difficult to hear by a DP due to lack of eyelight during a conversation.

The trouble with colorful hijabs is that bees try to pollinate you.

to disappear in a blanket of snow.

howard overman is so good i want to punch him in the face.

outsourced background aka third world solidarity camp.

you know you're privileged when you have the option not to care.

the sleeping privileged.

a wish granting nomad.

fake friends go with you to vegas.  true friends bust you out of internment camps.

An author values a compliment even when it comes from a source of doubtful competency.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography

just because someone is witty and insightful regarding their own people does not make them so regarding other peoples, particularly if they see themselves in a hierarchy of human civilizations.

mark twain was such a curmudgeon, but I would have probably hung out with him anyway.

when young, no one wants you around because you're different.  when you're old, they only want you around because you're entertaining.

think outside the mosque.

to be held without judgment.

when words overflow.

earrings with memories.

the wiseman's mind is a vault for other people's secrets.

why do people choose to walk on concrete when there is so much grass.

it is the burden of the underprivileged to be patient while the privileged are busy being self-involved.

otherworldly people with worldly secrets.

“The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own.” - Willa Cather

say it like a fortuneteller

as if saying it will make it real

I need to lose weight and stop giving result oriented direction.

hand is empty heart is full

overflowing laughter. shrinking tears.

jinns of joy.

blinding depression and frenzied mania.

variable speed imaginations.

practical matters of epic proportions.

Stardust
written by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn, from the novel by Neil Gaiman

Yvaine (Claire Danes): You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn’t true. I know a lot about love. I’ve seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars... pain, lies, hate... It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that mankind loves... You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. So yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, and... What I’m trying to say, Tristan is...I think I love you. Is this love, Tristan? I never imagined I'd know it for myself. My heart... It feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it’s trying to escape because it doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I’d wish for nothing in exchange...no gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine.

"To fall in love is easy, even to remain there is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be."
--Anna Louise Strong

making peace with destiny.

a day when people pass through you taking parts of your soul to corners of the earth.

the outsourced background players are like a traveling circus i swear

warm orange juice tastes like meat.

"In its glorious days, Islam was not intolerant. It commanded the admiration of the world. When the West was sunk in darkness, a bright star rose in the Eastern firmament and gave light and comfort to a groaning world. Islam is not a false religion. Let Hindus study it reverently, and they will love it even as I do." - Gandhi

the vocabulary of liberated souls.

we dream so long.

"You parked on Dufresne? I hope you have tires in the morning."

"I'm not going to date you just because I'm too pretty to be single."

a legion of hotness.

creating legends.  destroying monsters.

If you throw it, they will party.

if makeup is war paint earrings are an appendage

careful.  she's the kind of girl who'll put a ring on your finger faster than you can say 'wtf'.

candlelight dinner with A Bad Idea.

acceptance and rejection.  victory and defeat.

the giver of dreams.

to wash hands with one's own tears.

carry names

the color of hope is green

jasmine and emeralds

hope is so irrational.

please be real.

fate and other inconvenient things.

raindrops on the window at sundown

I love my job.

sometimes screaming at fate can shatter mirrors.

have to earn my mane.

If I'm ever successful in my career and am asked what I felt was my greatest accomplishment, I would like to say "not becoming an asshole in the process."  

silence is at war with love.

i'd rather hang out with the vulgar underground than the pompous elite.

silver chains and golden locks

everyone is protecting something.

listening to the soundtrack of other people's weddings.

scratching the underbelly of too many beasts.

A lullaby to hush the day's neverending pleas

overly sentimental and under-productive.

I don't know what's worse, irrelevance or lack of adventure.

all these marriages are really decimating my friend population.

there are always stakes.

where is your poetry?

a difficult destiny.

reactionary twit.

less majestic than expected.

i wish i was as good at some things as i am at moping.