Ages of Man According to Martin

"Your youth evaporates in your early 40s when you look in the mirror. And then it becomes a full-time job pretending you're not going to die. Then in your 50s everything is very thin.  And then suddenly you've got this huge new territory inside you, which is the past, which wasn't there before.  A new source of strength. Then that may not be so gratifying to you as the 60s begin, but then I find that in your 60s, everything begins to look sort of slightly magical again. And it's imbued with a kind of leave-taking resonance, that it's not going to be around very long, this world, so it begins to look poignant and fascinating."
--Martin Amis

A Process of Waiting

The actor Alfred Molina, currently appearing as the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko in RED, on acting, painting, and the creative process:

"The mechanics of what we do is really rather dull.  The notion that there is some kind of process, some kind of magical alchemical formula is nonsense.  I don't know my 'process.'  But I can tell you what I do.  The day-to-day grind of getting up and learning your lines and coming into work and going over the same bits is work.  But the journey toward creativity is always mundane.  Bloody hell.  It's the same for any creative endeavor.  It's not just about painting or the fine arts.  It's about everything we do.  It's a process of waiting."

(click to enlarge)

Fingers Crossed

for Curiosity landing on Mars tonight:

A Novel's Polestar

"A long-exposure photograph of the night sky will show you something that you never see, however often you look at the stars: thousands of perfect curves, concentrically arranged around an invisible pinhead. Everything is wheeling slowly about a single point. 

"A good book or a great adventure, fictional or real, often does the same.  There is a fulcrum: a still, quiet centre to the tale."

Matthew Parris