when parsimony becomes an instinct and exaggeration becomes part of the domestic aesthetic, when you think about it that's actually a kind of everyday wisdom. maybe we have reservations about a so-called simplicity and thrift that is actually a kind of squandering; that's why we're happier to explore and experiment with true simplicity, true frugality. ...
money won't necessarily improve our quality of life; the sales and circulation of many designer goods is even harder to trust. it will take some focus to make a good choice; one mustn't be careless. hot and cold, light and heavy, thick and thin are all elements of the study of life. ...
we all hope for an orderly life, trying to reach the most satisfactory living arrangements we can given limited resources. the most important thing is that, as we pass through this crowded station, we know where we've come from, and where we're going: living earnestly is itself a kind of happiness....
opening up can happen for its own sake, there's no need for too many oblique worries. complex life appears, stripped of everything extraneous, and every daily action is carried out in honesty. Light is light, darkness is darkness, that's all there is to it....
the future will eventually become the past, and once it's gone by we may sigh that it wasn't anything more. a certain shape, a certain color, repeatedly sinking and rising; these are delights and flavors only known by the old hands. ...
we are on the mountain; who can say where is the treasure, where is the trash? spinning, turning. change your position, your angle – your sight will be clearer, your stance firmer.
i desire only to live without the expectations and directions of others, to find the time and opportunity to really understand the stories behind the people and things around me, to learn to respect and appreciate the creativity that's gone into them, and to find the flexibility and possibility amid a materialist society, outside the worship of things. simply speaking, it means learning how to wade through the heaps and piles and brilliantly designed objects, and understand clearly how to design a better self. ...
a writer who's reluctant, and therefore difficult to label. sometimes hell-bent on rebellion, scrawling comics in a mad mood, sometimes cloistered and focused on nothing but art, either manning the kitchen stove, gorging amidst a flurry of knives and forks, ...
getting to know a chair is like getting to know a friend whose personality is totally new to you. you've got to sit yourself down and take careful stock of how it feels, go over all its surfaces and nestle down deep before you finally say, "yeah, I like this".
