J.J. Hanna > J.J.'s Quotes

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
― Gustav Flaubert

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

“Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.”
― Guy de Maupassant

“I'm not saying that everything is survivable. Just that everything except the last thing is.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Every villain is a hero in his own mind.”
― Tom Hiddleston

“In the natural world, a vine that wraps itself around even the mightiest oak, in the end, suffocates it.”
― Rebecca A. Miles, Locked Box

“Looking back, I see that encountering that lone and revered Islander Owen Rabbitt was an omen, an announcement, a heads-up. He was telling us two things that proved to be most true:

1. Come correct. Fishing here takes knowledge. Fish the right lure the right way at the right place.
2. What you catch in this place will enrich you far more than fish. The lone elder on that rock up in Gay head made it clear: This place has the ability to show you things deeper than fishing: things seen and heard in liminal space.”
― Mike Carotta, A Long Cast: Reflections on 50 Years of Visiting the Martha's Vineyard Surf

“There are some Keepers that should not be talked about.



Much.



It is as if, with each telling, they may lose some of the angel’s stardust from which they come.

A tad of stardust given away with each telling until years later they no longer have the stardust they once had.

Except to the story’s owner and friends whose hearts have enshrined it.”
― Mike Carotta, A Long Cast: Reflections on 50 Years of Visiting the Martha's Vineyard Surf

“There are stories that should not be told.



Much.



They contain stories only shared late, after most of the other things that day have been handled.

Because they are too rich and righteous to waste on the fly.

Because they are too wholly human, wholly memorable, wholly intimate, wholly tender.

And like that.

Holy.



These stories should not be told.



Much.”
― Mike Carotta, A Long Cast: Reflections on 50 Years of Visiting the Martha's Vineyard Surf

“The physical movement of casting, for 15 minutes or 75, opens fishermen up to the pondering, the evaluating, the remembering, the admitting, the resolving, the planning that comes with contemplation.

Casting also moves the surfcaster to the place where after a year’s worth of noise, one’s Inner Voice can be heard and responded to.



In the Cast you get lost.”
― Mike Carotta, A Long Cast: Reflections on 50 Years of Visiting the Martha's Vineyard Surf

“The Car is the space where Dad gets to ask his kids stuff he wants to know about their lives.”
― Mike Carotta, A Long Cast: Reflections on 50 Years of Visiting the Martha's Vineyard Surf

“He was announcing it loud enough for the God of the Sea and the Fish and the Souls and the Universe, could hear it. ..

Sometimes a moment takes your breath away, your draw drops, your eyes widen, you pause.

But this was the other kind of moment.

The kind of moment you inhale and take it in because it is for your soul.

And the older your soul the better it gets at letting you know when to automatically take it in.

I actually felt myself breathe it in.



The intimate gesture of Paying Tribute.”
― Mike Carotta, A Long Cast: Reflections on 50 Years of Visiting the Martha's Vineyard Surf

“This wasn’t about catching a fish. This was about overcoming.

The sea, and fishing its surf, has meditative power.”
― Mike Carotta, A Long Cast: Reflections on 50 Years of Visiting the Martha's Vineyard Surf