The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “Paul Goodman”

Thoreau on How Silence Ennobles Speech and the Ideal Space for Conversation
Thoreau on How Silence Ennobles Speech and the Ideal Space for Conversation

“There are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.”

read article

Keeping Quiet: Sylvia Boorstein Reads Pablo Neruda’s Beautiful Ode to Silence
Keeping Quiet: Sylvia Boorstein Reads Pablo Neruda’s Beautiful Ode to Silence

A lyrical reminder to break the momentum of busyness that fuels “the sadness of never understanding ourselves.”

read article

The Unlikely Roads That Lead Us Back to Ourselves: Eve Ensler on How a Tree Saved Her Life
The Unlikely Roads That Lead Us Back to Ourselves: Eve Ensler on How a Tree Saved Her Life

An emboldening story of reawakening to the “insane delight” of merely being.

read article

Pulitzer-Winning Poet Mark Strand on the Heartbeat of Creative Work and the Artist’s Task to Bear Witness to the Universe
Pulitzer-Winning Poet Mark Strand on the Heartbeat of Creative Work and the Artist’s Task to Bear Witness to the Universe

“It’s such a lucky accident, having been born, that we’re almost obliged to pay attention.”

read article

Ursula K. Le Guin on Anger
Ursula K. Le Guin on Anger

“Anger continued on past its usefulness becomes unjust, then dangerous… It fuels not positive activism but regression, obsession, vengeance, self-righteousness. Corrosive, it feeds off itself, destroying its host in the process.”

read article

The Aesthetic of Silence: Susan Sontag on Art as a Form of Spirituality and the Paradoxical Role of Silence in Creative Culture
The Aesthetic of Silence: Susan Sontag on Art as a Form of Spirituality and the Paradoxical Role of Silence in Creative Culture

“The art of our time is noisy with appeals for silence. A coquettish, even cheerful nihilism. One recognizes the imperative of silence, but goes on speaking anyway.”

read article

Arts of the Possible: Adrienne Rich on Writing, Capitalism, Freedom, and How Silence Fertilizes the Human Imagination
Arts of the Possible: Adrienne Rich on Writing, Capitalism, Freedom, and How Silence Fertilizes the Human Imagination

“The impulse to create begins — often terribly and fearfully — in a tunnel of silence. Every real poem is the breaking of an existing silence.”

read article

How to Listen Between the Lines: Anna Deavere Smith on the Art of Listening in a Culture of Speaking
How to Listen Between the Lines: Anna Deavere Smith on the Art of Listening in a Culture of Speaking

“Some people use language as a mask. And some want to create designed language that appears to reveal them but does not.”

read article

The Quiet Book: An Illustrated Love Letter to Life’s Meaningful Pauses
The Quiet Book: An Illustrated Love Letter to Life’s Meaningful Pauses

A sweet celebration of the nuanced stillnesses that comprise aliveness.

read article

An Artist’s Life Manifesto: Marina Abramović’s Rules of Life, Solitude, and Silence
An Artist’s Life Manifesto: Marina Abramović’s Rules of Life, Solitude, and Silence

“An artist should stay for long periods of time looking at the stars in the night sky.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)