Inoculation

When you get inoculated, a nurse injects a vaccine, which actually exposes you to a dose of the very disease your body must learn to overcome. It’s a good thing. Only then do we develop an immunity to it. Similarly, our kids must be inoculated with doses of hardship, delay, challenges and inconvenience to build the strength to stand in them.

~ Tim Elmore ~
Illustration courtesy openclipart.

Poetry Friday

Traditional matter must be glorified, since it would be easier to listen to the re-creation of familiar stories than to quite new and unexpected things; the listeners, we must remember, needed poetry chiefly as the re-creation of tired hours.

~ Lascelles Abercrombie ~

Happy Thanksgiving!

Vintage postcard courtesy NYPL Digital Gallery.

From the Bah Humbug School of Presidents

A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at?

~ Ronald Reagan ~
Photo by Patrick Beeson.

A Shooting Star

I am not going to die, I'm going home like a shooting star.

~ Sojourner Truth ~

Ready Or Not, Here It Comes

I like to compare the holiday season with the way a child listens to a favorite story. The pleasure is in the familiar way the story begins, the anticipation of familiar turns it takes, the familiar moments of suspense, and the familiar climax and ending.

~ Fred Rogers ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Unlike humans, cats get their energy from fat and protein, not carbohydrates. It is also a fact that by nature, cats are not designed to digest grains.

Corn is actually a grain.

~ Jodi Ziskin ~
Photo of Hemingway allowing his cat to eat corn on the cob, courtesy Ernest Hemingway Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Good Advice

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

~ Oscar Wilde from An Ideal Husband ~





Portrait of Oscar Wilde by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, courtesy The Athenaeum.

Poetry Friday

And it’s hardly an accident that Robert Frost coupled poetry and power, for he saw poetry as the means of saving power from itself. When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

~ John F. Kennedy ~
Photo courtesy John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

It Seems We Have Forgotten This

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.

~ John F. Kennedy ~
Image courtesy The White House.

It's All Good

I think movies do play a valuable role in turning people on to the act of reading. I think that phenomenon just creates readers. At first they're going to love Harry Potter, or they may love The Hunger Games, but after that, they're going to love the act of reading and wonder, "What else can I read?"

~ Gary Ross ~
Poster courtesy The Wrap.

Eternal Words

Photo of the dedication ceremony by Alexander Gardner, courtesy Library of Congress.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

~ Abraham Lincoln ~

It's All About Story

If you're sitting in your minivan, playing your computer animated films for your children in the back seat, is it the animation that's entertaining you as you drive and listen? No, it's the storytelling. That's why we put so much importance on story. No amount of great animation will save a bad story.

~ John Lasseter ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.

~ Lord Chesterfield ~
Photo by edmittance.

Everyone Has a Dark Closet

All a closet is, is a hard conversation.

~ Ash Beckham ~

Poetry Friday

Perhaps the most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake. Without this trait, poets would give up striving for perfection and would write commercial jingles...

~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ~

Never Be Afraid!

I've constantly tried new things, even as a child, and have always been obsessed with pink. Now I'm just a little more ladylike and fearless. You should never feel afraid to become a piece of art. It's exhilarating.

~ Nicki Minaj ~

A Wise Mother

Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to "jump at the sun." We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.

~ Zora Neale Hurston ~
Illustration courtesy openclipart.

Slavery

But to the slave mother New Year's day comes laden with peculiar sorrows. She sits on her cold cabin floor, watching the children who may all be torn from her the next morning; and often does she wish that she and they might die before the day dawns.

~ Harriet A. Jacobs ~


Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Veterans' Day

So hold your nose against the stink
And never stop too long to think.
Wars don't change except in name;
The next one must go just the same,
And new foul tricks unguessed before
Will win and justify this War.

~ Robert Graves from "The Next War"

[Sadly true words. Therefore, vote for peace, and pray for our veterans. --KK]

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

~ Haruki Murakami ~








"Cat Lying in front of a Bouquet of Flowers" by Suzanne Valadon [1919], courtesy The Athenaeum.

Figuratively, Of Course

If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.

~ Pablo Picasso ~







Portrait of Pablo Picasso by Amedeo Modigliani [1915], courtesy The Athenaeum.

Poetry Friday

I read poetry to save time.

~ Marilyn Monroe ~
David Conover photo of Norma Jean Dougherty from 1945 Yank: The Army Weekly magazine, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

NaNoWriMo

Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay.

~ Flannery O'Connor ~
Illustration courtesy openclipart.

Dream Job

I love being an illustrator because I get to read really great stories, work with amazing people, travel and see places I never would've seen. And I get to draw all the time.

~ Brian Selznick ~


Photo by Bookavore.

Oh, Those Cheeky Grannies!

I've had lots of kids come up and ask for my autograph, I've had a grandmother stop me and ask me if I know a good place to buy underwear.

~ Prince William ~
Photo of Selfridge's elevator by failing_angel.

It's World Vegan Month!

Being vegan just gives you such great karma.

~ Alicia Silverstone ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Posted on Henri's Facebook page, 10/20/13. (Who knew Henri was able to text?)

Empathy

Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.

~ Neil Gaiman ~

Poetry Friday

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

~ Mary Oliver ~