...one of those words, like Love, that I have never quite understood...

“Happy," I muttered, trying to pin the word down. But it is one of those words, like Love, that I have never quite understood. Most people who deal in words don’t have much faith in them and I am no exception – especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong. They are too elusive and far to relative when you compare them to sharp, mean little words like Punk and Cheap and Phony. I feel at home with these, because they’re scrawny and easy to pin, but the big ones are tough and it takes either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.”

...a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip

"[Jordan’s] gray, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home. I’d been writing letters once a week and signing them: "Love, Nick," and all I could think of was how, when that certain girl played tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip. Nevertheless there was a vague understanding that had to be tactfully broken off before I was free."


F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby (p. 169)

No Caminho de Swann

"Talvez a imobilidade das coisas ao nosso redor lhes seja imposta pela nossa certeza de que tais coisas sãoelas mesmas e não outras, pela imobilidade de nosso pensamento em relação a elas."

No Caminho de Swann
por Marcel Proust
1913

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
__________
 Robert Frost

I have scars on my hands for touching certain people...

“If or when I do start going to an analyst, I hope to God he has the foresight to let a dermatologist sit in on the consultation. A hand specialist. I have scars on my hands from touching certain people… Certain heads, certain colours and textures of human hair leave permanent marks on me. Other things, too. Charlotte once ran away from me, outside the studio, and I grabbed her dress to stop her, to keep her near me. A yellow cotton dress I loved because it was too long for her. I still have a lemon-yellow mark on the palm of my right hand."


― J.D. Salinger, Raise High the Roof Beam

Sutra do Diamante

O Sutra do Diamante diz: 'Não forme concepções a respeito da realidade da existência nem sobre a irrealidade da existência', ou outras palavras assim. As algemas vão ficar macias e os cassetetes vão cair por terra, vamos em frente e sejamos livres de qualquer maneira.

Jack Kerouac, em Vagabundos Iluminados

um rosto só cobre a caveira por um certo tempo

(...) por um tempo e em seguida o caminhão arrancou, me levando triste de volta para o cenário da minha infância enquanto da traseira do caminhão eu ficava olhando a estrada cada vez mais familiar se desenrolando  - então eu acordo hoje de manhã, encontro carne de porco na geladeira, duas costeletas, e cozinho elas no vapor em uma panela colocada dentro de outra panela com água (três dedos) que eu fervo com uma tampa por cima de todo o esquema, tentando manter aquele precioso sabor de porco sem fritar e sem nenhuma situação gorda do tipo e tudo porque eu me lembro daquela costeleta em Hartford em 41. A gente vai direto para a cova - um rosto só cobre a caveira por um certo tempo. O jeito é esticar o rosto por cima da caveira e sorrir.

Jack Kerouac - Visões de Cody (p.28)