was something saying i should kill myself posthaste if the truth was that i was going to be mediocre? this was a thought with real pain behind it. to my wreck of a mother mediocre was a superlative—an imputation i resisted with all my might once i realized it involved me. i grew up clinging to the idea that either i was original in an unappreciated way or that i could be original—this later—by incessant striving and reading and taking simple precautions like never watching television again in my life.

- normal rush, mating

"i learned that in life we make appointments," she summarises, "and when we make an appointment there's desire connected with it, which creates the possibility of disappointment, frustration and all kinds of negative responses when they're not fulfilled. so he says, 'go back to the root of the whole situation, don't attach yourself to an idea so strongly that you make an appointment'."

- edwin pouncey, "enduring love: interview with alice coltrane," wire april 2002