Silver Lake Branch Library Quote Project
The Los Angeles Public Library Board of Commissioners has asked us to participate in the art project that is in process for our new Branch.
The art project has been designed by Christina Ulke and it is quotes to be applied to the walls of the library. The quotes and their authors were selected to be a portrait of Silver Lake’s unique cultural scene, the eclectic mix of modernism, pop culture and art.
It is also a portrait of bohemian Silver Lake. It identifies Silver Lake as a place where many musicians, artists, writers and architects live, work and inspire each other and did so since the 20s.
Christina Ulke,
Project Artist
Friends of
Silver Lake Library suggestions:
1. JAMES L.
HERLIHY
, author Midnight Cowboy, playwright, actor, 1927-1993.
Longtime Silver Lake resident.
“Be
yourself. No one can ever
tell
you you're doing it
wrong.”
"Don't look
for a lover, be one"
2. ANTONIO
MORENO,
Silent film
star and director and real estate developer, 1887- 1967
"I believed in
opportunity and thought I should recognize the first knock."
"How we dreamed! How we builded! What futures we erected in clouds
beyond the sight of mortal eye."
Source of
information for quotes - Bruce Long, professor at Arizona State
University,
www.bruce@asu.edu http://www.quotes.net/quote/14158
3. WILLIAM MULHOLLAND, water services engineer, Southern
California, 1855-1935.
"I half
regretted the demise of so many of the Owens Valley's orchard trees,
because now there were no longer enough trees to hang all the
troublemakers who live there."
"The Los
Angeles River was a beautiful, limpid little stream with willows on
its banks….it was so attractive to me that it at once became
something about which my whole scheme of life was woven. I loved it
so much"
"If you don't
bring the water, you'll never need it.”
http://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp001562.jsp
4. JOHN
LAUTNER, Architect, 1911- 1994, known for “Silvertop” among others,
quote from class notes 1960’s, transcribed in 2004.
“The
world’s richest nation should be able to produce a free – beautiful
– Architecture for individuals – for people – to daily increase the
Joy in life.”
http://www.johnlautner.org/wp/?p=6
5. RICHARD
NEUTRA, Architect, 1892-1970
“Los
Angeles seems a place where everything was possible…It is an
interesting place….where everybody is in a big melting pot and
you cannot find the grass roots.”
“Spaciousness
is not a matter of square feet.”
“Los
Angeles…was also a place where various things could be done which
were very much more radical than what you see in old established
places.”
“Progress can
be colossal.”
All of the
above quotes suggested by FOSLL are from “Interview with Richard J.
Neutra” by Richard J. Neutra and Richard Hughes; Transition, No. 29,
Feb-March 1967, pp 22-34, Indiana University Press on behalf of the
W.E.B. Du Bois Institute.
6. AYN RAND,
philosopher, author, 1905-1982. Silver Lake resident.
“The
question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop
me.”
“The
truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.”
“A
creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the
desire to beat others”
“The ladder
of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.”
The above
from
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/Ayn_Rand/.
7. MARILYN
HORNE, opera singer, 1934- , past Silver Lake resident.
"As
a woman, perhaps my struggles were even more arduous".
"If
you don't have great teachers, you're not going to have great
singers,"
“Opera
diva Marilyn Horne discusses experimental
cancer treatment”, Verena Dobnik, Associated Press, January 14,
2008.
8. HENRY
LEWIS, double bassist, orchestral conductor, 1932-1996, former
husband of Marilyn Horne, past Silver Lake Resident.
"I'm always
talking, exploring, consciously trying to break down the barrier
between us.”
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EFDB1639F93BA15752C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
"It's harder
getting a symphony to swing than getting a jazz ensemble to play
Bach."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842340-1,00.html
9. JAKE
ZEITLIN, bookseller, 1902-1987
"Bohemianism
thrives on adversity. You have to have a concentration of people
practicing their arts, people with superior endowments who don't
necessarily fit into society.”
“Believe in
practicing something that is justification for being, whether it be
dancing, writing, sculpting or music."
“People
believe in legends so much they don't even compare the legend to the
reality.”
"The
most wonderful thing in the world would be to have a book shop where
people could come and browse and talk."
Lionel Rolfe “Literary LA”
10. GRACE
CLEMENTS, artist, writer, 1905-1968
“The artists’
place is “to find their place in the present social upheaval and to
become the revolutionary instrument to carry on the tradition of
great creative art.”
11. MIA DOI
TODD, singer, songwriter, 1975
“I
am far from land. I have left in my hand a few grains of sand, and I
try to understand the world in all its expanse.”
"I'm
definitely a seeker in this life, trying to figure out the
nature of life. And music is such a gift, and really just an
ancient expression of humankind, like the relationship to
nature, and being human, and making beautiful things--it's a
spiritual quest. And music, it's amazing to make this invisible
thing, it's like a bridge to the spiritual life which is also a
kind of invisible thing.”
“Music, you
can make it by yourself, but it's also a beautiful thing to make
music with other people-when you do that, and you're making a thing
outside of yourself that's invisible, you can feel a spiritual
relationship between yourself and some greater thing, and feel like
a part of it. And songs--it feels like they are already written in
some perfect way, and you're trying to hear them, and they whisper
in your ear, and then you are just a medium to bring them out into
the world.”
http://www.puremusic.com/85mdt2.html
12. HARRY
HAY, gay rights activist, 1912-2002
“Out of the
mists of our long oppression, we bring love for ourselves and each
other, and love for the gifts we bear, so heavy and so painful the
fashioning of them, so long the road given us to travel them. A
separate people, we bring a gift to celebrate each other."
“Tis a gift
to be gay! Feel the pride of it.”
“With the
full realization that, in order for us to earn for ourselves any
place in the sun, we must with perseverance and self discipline
work collectively…for the full first class citizenship participation
of Minorities everywhere, including ourselves.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=ts4xksTvnqcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=radically+gay#PPA3,M1
13. KAUCYILA
BROOKE, artist, philosopher, 1952-
“I
will never be young and married, blond and gentle and hopeful,
driving a beautiful white mustang through Valencia. Instead my car
is plowing my life into theirs.”
http://www.calarts.edu/faculty_bios/art/faculty/kaucyilabrooke/kaucyilabrooke
14. MICHAEL
“FLEA” BALZARY, musician, 1982- and founding
member of the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music on Sunset
"Well,
I’m gonna ride a sabertooth horse through the Hollywood hills just
don’t show me anything .// ‘cos that’s the way I feel Well, I dig
the dirt an’ I dig the dust I barbecue my meals// Ridin’ wild on a
paisley dragon through the Hollywood hills, yeah..Huh, Hollywood
hills.//Passion dripping from the coyote’s eyes He can taste his
blood An’ blood never lies Pale face die. True men don’t kill
coyotes."
“You
know what L.A. is to me?
It’s that bird that goes,
ooooh-ah-oooh, ooh-ooh.”
http://rhcprock.free.fr/spin0802.htm
15. SANDRA DE
LA LOZA, with the Pocho Research Society
“Le Barcito
became a haven for an increasingly less visible Silver Lake, a
magical mix of the rancho, Bohemia, of something Mexican and
artistic.”
16. CARLOS
ALMARAZ, painter, muralist, 1941-1989
“People
say, your paintings look like the paint's moving. They're
animated. And this is what I was trying to get across. Not
a still rendition of something, but a sense of movement, which
is what the movement was all about.”
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/almara86.htm
17. ANAIS
NIN, author, 1903-1977
"Life
expands or shrinks in proportion to one's courage."
The Diary of Anais Nin. Vol 3 1939-1944
About Silver
Lake:
"The mountains
on the east side of the lake looked like a Japanese screen. As the
sun set, every evening presented a spectacle equal to a Russian
ballet, all
gold
and trailing saris, or the Chinese opera, all red and smoky
incense, or the opal coral islands of the South Seas, the flaming
spill of Mexican sunsets.”
http://www.articlesbase.com/destinations-articles/from-ivanhoe-to-disney-a-brief-look-at-silver-lake-in-los-angeles-506584.html
18. WOODY
GUTHRIE, folksinger, 1912-1967
“Grassy
grass grass, tree tree tree
Leafy leaf leaf, one-y two three
Birdy bird bird, fly fly fly
Nesty nest nest, high high high
Cloudy cloud cloud, windy wind wind
Rainy rain rain, muddy mud mud
Doggy dog dog, runny run run
Quicky quick quick, homy home home
Daddy dad dad, mommy mom mom
Sleepy sleep sleep, dreamy dream dream
Dancer dance dance, singer sing sing
Crow crow crow, piggy pig pig”
"The world
I've seen is alive and interesting, not because its pretty and
perfect and eternal but because it needs my fixin', I need fixin'
and so does the land".
"My mommy
told me an' the teacher told me, too,
There's all kinds of work that I can do:
Dry my dishes, sweep my floor,
But if we all work together it won't take very long.
We all work
together with a giggle and a grin.
I'll clear my
house of the weeds of fear
And turn to the friends around me,
With my smile of peace, I'll greet you one and all;
I'll work, I'll fight, I'll sing and dance,
Of peace of the youthful spirit;
Get ready for my bugle call of peace."
19. CECIL
CASTELLUCCI, young adult novelist, 1989
“I’ve decided
to go through all of the classics they have in the teen section. I’m
going to start on the letter zed and go backward. Why start at the
beginning? I bet no one ever actually gets to zed.”
20. JOHN
CAGE, composer, 1912-1992
“It’s
useless to play lullabies for those who cannot sleep.”
"I
have nothing to say and I am saying it and this is poetry"
Lecture on
Nothing (1961) From the book: "The Oxford Dictionary of Modern
Quotations" Elizabeth Knowles 1991
21. BECK,
musician, 1970-
“This boredom
just doesn’t exist. It never did.”
“I think my whole generation's mission is to kill
the cliché.”
“There's
some quality you get when you're not totally comfortable. When
you're not doing what you're used to, you could completely fall on
your face. You could completely blow it.”
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/beck102441.html
Please Send Your Comments and Suggestions to
Maryann Kuk
Return to Main Page
