the well written - ken kesey

What the Chronics are - or most of us - are machines with flaws inside
that can't be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beat in over so many years
of the guy running head-on into solid things that by the time the hospital
found him he was bleeding rust in some vacant lot.

- Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

By Patrice Murciano

on reading - ralph waldo emerson

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences
that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

By Selçuk Demirel

the well written - vladimir nabokov

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta:
the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap,
at three, on the teeth.  Lo. Lee. Ta.  She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning,
standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly
at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was
always Lolita.

- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

Lolita and Humbert by Lana

illustration - vilde d. ulriksen

The home page of Vilde's website says "Every picture tells a story".
She's always been minded in the way of deep and mysterious forests,
fae creatures, and ethereal beings, illustration as her means to get the
stories from her mind and into the world.  From what she creates,
I'd say these are some pretty wonderful stories...

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine
picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not
obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the
human soul.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

photo stories - gregory crewdson

Ultimately, I’m interested in this ambiguous moment that draws the viewer
in through photographic beauty, through repulsion, through some kind of
tension.  I have always been fascinated by the poetic condition of twilight.
By its transformative quality. Its power of turning the ordinary into something
magical and otherworldly. My wish is for the narrative in the pictures to work
within that circumstance. It is that sense of in-between-ness that interests me.   

– Gregory Crewdson

Many writers also manage to strike this balance between beauty and repulsion.
Valente and Angela Carter strike me as two great examples.  See here:

They fell on me, which is pretty much how zombies do anything...  But they 
didn't bite me, and finally my father threw back his head and bellowed. I know 
that bellow. I've always known it, and it hasn't changed. They pulled away, panting, 
exhausted... And my father limped over to me, dragging his broken left foot-they 
don't die but they don't heal. I tried to set it once and that was the closest I ever 
came to getting bitten before that night on the river.

He stood over me, his eyebrows crusted with old fluid, his eyes streaming tears 
like ink, his jaw dislocated and hanging, his cheeks puffed out with infection. He 
reached out and hooted gently like an ape. To anyone else it would have been just 
another animal noise from a rotting zombie, but I heard it as clear as anything: 
Caitlin, Caitlin, Caitlin. I had nowhere to go, and he reached for me, brushing my 
hair out of my face. With one bloody thumb he traced a circle onto my forehead, 
like a priest on Ash Wednesday. Caitlin, Caitlin, Caitlin.

His blood was cold. 

- Catherynne M. Valente, " The Days of Flaming Motorcycles" 

And a great example from Carter can be found here.

a dreamer's wisdom - dr. seuss

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive
who is Youer than You.

- Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

By Eden Timm

on writing - virginia woolf

For it would seem - her case proved it - that we write, not with the fingers,
but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself
about every fibre of our being, threads the heart, pierces the liver.

- Virginia Woolf, Orlando

By Michaela Coney