That's the artist's job, really: continually setting yourself free, and giving yourself new options and new ways of thinking about things. Miranda July More Quotes by Miranda July More Quotes From Miranda July Some people are uncomfortable with silences. Not me. I’ve never cared much for call and response. Sometimes I will think of something to say and then I ask myself: is it worth it? And it just isn’t. Miranda July silence people thinking The things keeping you back-these embarrassing, boring, stupid obstacles-are the heart of what it is to be human. They’re the whole reason for making and needing art. So you might as well go ahead and begin in whatever way you can right now. Miranda July stupid might art Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it's worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It's okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise. Miranda July fire morning thinking That day I carried the dream around like a full glass of water, moving gracefully so I would not lose any of it. Miranda July glasses dream moving Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass them on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. Miranda July fire faces sky What a terrible mistake to let go of something wonderful for something real. Miranda July real letting-go life I laughed and said, Life is easy. What I meant was, Life is easy with you here, and when you leave, it will be hard again. Miranda July said-life life-is easy That is my problem with life, I rush through it, like I'm being chased. Even things whose whole point is slowness, like drinking relaxing tea. When I drink relaxing tea I suck it down as if I'm in a contest for who can drink relaxing tea the quickest. Miranda July problem drinking tea Don't wait to be sure. Move, move, move. Miranda July waiting moving For a split second I felt as though she was nobody special in the larger scheme of my life. She was just some girl who had tied me to her leg to help her sink when she jumped off the bridge. Then I blinked and was in love with her again. Miranda July girl bridges special You've got the people you know, which are problematic. Always. They're rich but they're also real people living their lives alongside you. Then you've got the people that you make-up completely, who are often missing a dimension if they don't have some reference to real people. So strangers exist in this in-between space, where in not knowing them, you are creating a fiction for them, even in passing, but at the same time, there they are, with their actual bodies and their actual clothes. It's totally enticing. Miranda July creating clothes real Very few women have become famous for being who they actually are, nuanced and imperfect. When honesty happens, it's usually couched in self-ridicule or self-help. Dunham doesn't apologize like that-she simply tells her story as if it might be interesting. The result is shocking and radical because it is utterly familiar. Not That Kind of Girl is hilarious, artful, and staggeringly intimate; I read it shivering with recognition. Miranda July honesty girl self ... we had once called out hello into the cauldron of the world and then run away before anyone could respond. Miranda July hello running world I made orange juice from concentrate and showed her the trick of squeezing the juice of one real orange into it. It removes the taste of being frozen. She marveled at this, and I laughed and said, Life is easy. What I meant was, Life is easy with you here, and when you leave, it will be hard again. Miranda July said-life orange-juice real He breathed out the bitter air that makes women doubt everything, and I breathed it in, as I had always done. I expelled my dust, the powder of everything I had destroyed with doubt, and he pulled it into his lungs. Miranda July dust doubt air They wordlessly excused each other for not loving each other as much as they had planned to. There were empty rooms in the house where they had meant to put their love, and they worked together to fill these rooms with midcentury modern furniture. ("Birthmark"). Miranda July empty-rooms together house I cried in English, I cried in french, I cried in all the languages, because tears are the same all around the world. Miranda July language tears world This pain, this dying, this is just normal. This is how life is. In fact, I realize, there never was an earthquake. Life is just this way, broken, and I am crazy for dreaming of something else. Miranda July pain crazy dream Things usually make sense in time, and even bad decisions have their own kind of correctness. Miranda July being-single decision inspirational I gave you things I wasn't sure I even had. Miranda July
