Alex Dobrenko

“The real cycle you’re working on is a cycle called yourself. The machine that appears to be “out there” and the person that appears to be “in here” are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from Quality together.” — Robert Pirsig

There is something so frivolous about water. It makes you float like you are in outer space! And no matter what you do—whatever shape you make of yourself—it will instantly fit itself around you!

You want MAPS of Contents, or what I call ``MOCs''. This is like a table of contents, but far more dynamic. Is an entry really important? Make it's MOC entry really big. Unimportant? Make it small. Or even pull out the name, and just surround the page number in parenthesis. If you are ever investigating that area, you can look it up to see what it... See more

Psychoanalysis, Phillips has written, “is a conversation that enables people to understand what stops them having the kinds of conversation they want.” This sort of provoking, ludic oversimplification, which simultaneously domesticates, satirizes, and widens the field of Freudian inquiry, is precisely Phillipsian.

Taking notes, I’ve come to realize, is a form of collecting. I’ve never been interested in collecting physical things, but when it comes to beautiful literary quotes, I have thousands of notebook entries.

Making ceramics requires patience and is an exercise in delayed gratification (or dissatisfaction). There are so many ways to fuck something up, so many stages to the process, and entering that cycle of hope, expectation, and either failure and trying again or ecstatic satisfaction added a new dimension to the rhythms of my life.