Indian - Writer | February 11, 1957 -
If we do away with semi-colons, parentheses and much else, we will lose all music, nuance and subtlety in communication - and end up shouting at one another in block capitals.
Pico Iyer
CommunicationMusicEndLoseWill
Contractions, 'U' for 'you' and the like are wonderful to make communication brief and efficient - but we wouldn't want all our talk to be only brief and efficient. Taking pauses out of language would be like taking the net away from a tennis game. Where would all the fun go?
CommunicationFunGameLanguageYou
It's an old principle, as old as the Buddha or Marcus Aurelius: We need at times to step away from our lives in order to put them in perspective. Especially if we wish to be productive.
PerspectiveStepWishOldNeedAway
Movement is a fantastic privilege... but it ultimately only has meaning if you have a home to go back to.
HomeMeaningYouBackGoPrivilege
Home is, in the end, not just the place where you sleep, but the place where you stand.
HomeSleepEndStandYouPlace
I can still remember the afternoon, on my 15th birthday, when I opened up 'The Virgin and the Gypsy,' D.H. Lawrence's novella, in my tiny cell in boarding school, and whole worlds of possibility opened out that I had never guessed existed. The language was on fire and sang of liberation.
BirthdayFireSchoolLanguageI Can
In the two-room flat where I live in Japan, I try to take time every day to step away from the bombardment of e-mails and opportunities and papers around my desk, for an hour, and just sit on our 30-inch terrace in the sun, reading something sustaining, whether 'The Age of Innocence' or the latest by Colm Toibin.
LiveAgeTimeDayStepSun
A book doesn't have to be a literary classic, of course, to change us forever.
ChangeBookClassicForeverUs
The less you struggle with a problem, the more it's likely to solve itself. The less time you spend frantically running around, the more productive you are likely to be.
TimeStruggleProblemYouMoreLess
Something in us is telling us we're moving too fast, at a pace dictated by machines rather than by anything human, and that unless we take conscious measures, we'll permanently be out of breath.
MovingFastHumanOutAnythingTake
Though I knew that poverty certainly didn't buy happiness, I wasn't convinced that money did, either.
HappinessMoneyPovertyBuyKnew
Not having a car gives me volumes not to think or worry about, and makes walks around the neighborhood a daily adventure.
CarDailyAdventureMeThinkWorry
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