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“I'd shut the whole world down just to tell you”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“We have not touched the stars,
nor are we forgiven, which brings us back
to the hero’s shoulders and the gentleness that comes,
not from the absence of violence, but despite
the abundance of it.”
― Richard Siken, Crush

“I had a dream about you. We were in the gold room
where everyone finally gets what they want.
You said Tell me about your books, your visions made
of flesh and light and I said This is the Moon. This is
the Sun. Let me name the stars for you. Let me take you
there. The splash of my tongue melting you like a sugar
cube…We were in the gold room where everyone
finally gets what they want, so I said What do you
want, sweetheart? and you said Kiss me. Here I am
leaving you clues. I am singing now while Rome
burns. We are all just trying to be holy. My applejack,
my silent night, just mash your lips against me.
We are all going forward. None of us are going back.”
― Richard Siken

“I was helpless in trying to return people's kindness, but also helpless to resist it. Kindness is a scarier force than cruelty, that's for sure. Cruelty isn't that hard to understand. I had no trouble comprehending why the phone company wanted to screw me over; they just wanted to steal some money, it was nothing personal. That's the way of the world. It made me mad, but it didn't make me feel stupid. If anything, it flattered my intelligence. Accepting all that kindness, though, made me feel stupid.

Human benevolence is totally unfair. We don't live in a kind or generous world, yet we are kind and generous. We know the universe is out to burn us, and it gets us all the way it got Renee, but we don't burn each other, not always. We are kind people in an unkind world, to paraphrase Wallace Stevens. How do you pretend you don't know about it, after you see it? How do you go back to acting like you don't need it? How do you even the score and walk off a free man? You can't. I found myself forced to let go of all sorts of independence I thought I had, independence I had spent years trying to cultivate. That world was all gone, and now I was a supplicant, dependent on the mercy of other people's psychic hearts.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“لا أَنامُ لأحلم - قالت لَهُ
بل أَنام لأنساكَ. ما أطيب النوم وحدي
بلا صَخَبٍ في الحرير، اُبتعدْ لأراكَ
وحيداً هناك، تفكِّر بي حين أنساكَ /
لا شيء يوجعني في غيابكَ
لا الليل يخمش صدري ولا شفتاكَ ...
أنام على جسدي كاملاً كاملا
لا شريك له،
لا يداك تشقَّان ثوبي، ولا قدماكَ
تَدُقَّانِ قلبي كبُنْدقَةٍ عندما تغلق الباب /
لا شيء ينقصني في غيابك:
نهدايَ لي. سُرَّتي. نَمَشي. شامتي،
ويدايَ وساقايَ لي. كُلُّ ما فيَّ لي
ولك الصُّوَرُ المشتهاةُ، فخذْها
لتؤنس منفاكَ، واُرفع رؤاك كَنَخْبٍ
أخير. وقل إن أَردت: هَواكِ هلاك.

وأَمَّا أَنا، فسأُصغي إلى جسدي
بهدوء الطبيبة: لاشيء، لاشيء
يُوجِعُني في الغياب سوى عُزْلَةِ الكون!”
― محمود درويش, كزهر اللوز أو أبعد

“I love you. I love you,
but I’m turning to my verses
and my heart is closing
like a fist.”
― Frank O'Hara, Meditations in an Emergency

“أعترف بأني تعبت من طول الحلم الذي يعيدني إلى أوله وإلى آخري دون أن نلتقي في أي صباح .”
― محمود درويش, أثر الفراشة

“ليتني حجر
لا أحنُّ إلى أيِّ شيء
فلا أمسِ يمضي،
ولا الغَدُ يأتي
ولا حاضري يتقدَّمُ أو يتراجعُ
لا شيءَ يحدُثُ لي!”
― محمود درويش

“لأن أحداً لا يأتي في موعده ولأن الانتظار يشبه الجلوس على صفيح ساخن .. أعاد عقارب ساعته اليدوية عشرين دقيقة إلى الوراء . هكذا خفف عن نفسه عذاب الانتظار ونسي الأمر .”
― محمود درويش, أثر الفراشة

“هل كان علينا أن نسقط من علو شاهق ونرى دمنا على أيدينا لندرك أننا لسنا ملائكة كما كنا نظن ؟”
― محمود درويش, أثر الفراشة

“قل ما تشاء . ضع النقاط على الحروف . ضع الحروف مع الحروف لتولد الكلمات , غامضة وواضحة , ويبتدئ الكلام .”
― محمود درويش, لا تعتذر عما فعلت

“هل يستحق أنوثتي أحدٌ سواي ؟”
― محمود درويش, لا تعتذر عما فعلت

“فأشهد أني حيّ وحُرٌ حين أُنسى !”
― محمود درويش, لا تعتذر عما فعلت

“على قلبي مشيت كأن قلبي طريق أو رصيف أو هواء .”
― محمود درويش, أثر الفراشة

“هل في وسعي أن أختار أحلامي لئلّا أحلم بما لا يتحقق؟”
― محمود درويش

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“It’s the same with people who say, ‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.�� Even people who say this must realize that the exact opposite is true. What doesn’t kill you maims you, cripples you, leaves you weak, makes you whiny and full of yourself at the same time. The more pain, the more pompous you get. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you incredibly annoying.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“When we die, we will turn into songs, and we will hear each other and remember each other.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with �� nothing brings it all to life like an old mix tape. It does a better job of storing up memories than actual brain tissue can do. Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together, and they can add up to the story of a life.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“Our lives were just beginning, our favorite moment was right now, our favorite songs were unwritten.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“It's always that one song that gets to you. You can hide, but the song comes to find you.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“There are all kinds of mix tapes. there is always a reason to make one.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“Tonight, I feel like my whole body is made out of memories. I'm a mix-tape, a cassette that's been rewound so many times you can hear the fingerprints smudged on the tape.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“I had no voice to talk with because she was my whole language.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“I get sentimental over the music of the ��90s. Deplorable, really. But I love it all. As far as I’m concerned the ��90s was the best era for music ever, even the stuff that I loathed at the time, even the stuff that gave me stomach cramps.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“I realize that I will never fully understand the millions of bizarre ways that music brings people together.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“But the answer is simple. Love is a mix tape.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“Love dies in many different ways, and it's natural for the grass to seem greener on the other side. But it's not a competition; there's plenty of pain to go around.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“The dilemma of the eighth-grade dance is that boys and girls use music in different ways. Girls enjoy music they can dance to, music with strong vocals and catchy melodies. Boys, on the other hand, enjoy music they can improve by making up filthy new lyrics.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

“Nothing connects to the moment like music. I count the music to bring me back, or more precisely, to bring her forward.”
― Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time