“It brutalizes these beautiful stomach linings as a wagon master abuses ponies; the plexus becomes inflamed; sparks shoot all the way up to the brain. From that moment on, everything becomes agitated. Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; on imagination’s orders, sharpshooters sight and fire; forms and shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink—for the nightly labour begins and ends with torrents of this black water, as a battle opens and concludes with black powder.”
– Honoré de Balzac, quoted in Page Fright: Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Writers by Harry Bruce
__________
“I think it depends on who is smoking it. It’s not for everyone. It’s medicine and if it’s not your medicine you shouldn’t make it so.”
– Willie Nelson, quoted in Interview: Willie Nelson by Nigel Farndale, Daily Telegraph
__________
I’m giving up coffee.
It doesn’t agree with me.
I am already down to a single morning cup.
But even that seems too much for me.
Coffee is lionized and mythologized in writing lore.
Balzac certainly seems enthralled by its creative effects, but it is often accompanied by the violence of over stimulation.
It’s a case of the romance of the idea clashing with the reality of my body.
Give me some herbal tea while I figure out my own regimen.
I wonder if one day I will read a description of coffee which will leave me as cold and lacking in craving as Willie describing his smoking.
But is coffee that bad?
I have just washed up my cup, which triggered the anticipation of tomorrow’s coffee.
I’m tempted.
Maybe I am not that resolute.
Do I need to be?
I reserve the right to hold no absolute views.
Perhaps I do need a little adventure in my life.
After all, medicine is all in the dosage.
Conversations With Quotations 