do you prefer crash and burn, or burn and crash?

© Claude Nori

You put two people who have not been put together before. Sometimes it is like that first attempt to harness a hydrogen ballon to a fire balloon: do you prefer crash and burn, or burn and crash? But sometimes it works, and something new is made, and the world is changed. Then, at some point, sooner or later, for this reason or that, one of them is taken away. And what is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there. This may not be mathematically possiblle; but it is emotionally possible.

Julian Barnes, in Levels of life

© Eikoh Hosoe

"Reading the end of James Joyce's Ulysses when Molly Bloom is remembering is erotic because she gives permission, gives up and gives way, and this is always exciting and interesting because it is personal, not impersonal. Isn't it strange that looking at little abstract symbols on a white page can make a person feel susch things? I see her in his arms. I am in his arms. I remember your arms."

Siri Hustvedt, in Living, thinking, looking - essays

© Claude Nori

"...e depois pedi-lhe com os olhos para pedir outra vez sim e depois ele pediu-me se eu queria sim dizer sim minha flor da montanha e primeiro pus os braços à volta dele sim e puxei-o para baixo de mim para que pudesse sentir os meus seios todos perfume sim e o coração batia-lhe como louco e sim eu disse sim eu quero Sim."

James Joyce, in Ulisses