‘One can only say that those who experience it [the aesthetic emotion] feel it to have a peculiar quality of “reality” which makes it a matter of infinite importance in their lives. Any attempt I might make to explain this would probably land me in the depths of mysticism. On the edge of that gulf I stop’.

Roger Fry, “Retrospect”, in Vision and Design, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1981 (1920), 211

Blanchot, from “Literature and The Right to Death” (full text here)

Anne Carson, from “Variations on the Right to Remain Silent” by Anne CarsonA Public Space, Issue 7 / 2008 (full text here)

Susan Sontag from “The Aesthetics of Silence”

Rembrandt, Self Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar, 1659
Francis Bacon, Self Portrait, 1973. 

Anne Carson, from Nox

Louise Gluck from Proofs & Theories

Anne Carson, from “Variations on the Right to Remain Silent” by Anne Carson, A Public Space, Issue 7 / 2008 (full text here)

Angel was Dead: what then remained? You may say that what remained was a simple and common object – a young woman in a bedroom with an inkpot. In other words, now that she had rid herself of falsehood, that young woman had only to be herself. Ah but what was herself? I mean, what is a woman? I assure you, I do not know…These were two of the adventures of my professional life. The first – killing the Angel in the House – I think I solved. She died. But the second, telling the truth about my experiences as a body, I do not think I solved. I doubt that any woman has solved it yet.

Virginia Woolf, “Professions for Women”