Smoke Hole Quotes

“It may not look like much, not with all these other distractions, but we make things holy by the kind of attention we give them.”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“When I started reading Smoke Hole, I noticed the hair on my body growing faster. Midway, my fingernails needed to be clipped sooner. By the end, my voice had dipped from a Barry Gibb falsetto to a Barry White baritone. If you dare ... read with care.”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“To be wedded to the wild means you have curated a doorway beyond societal expectation or the perpetual”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“The Handless Maiden doesn’t arrive like Boudicca; she’s less strident”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“What we don’t sift to consciousness rolls in as drama.”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“Every image in a story is an opportunity to bring the scene closer to your lived experience. The storyteller is reminding us of moments when sheer grind brought about lack of discernment”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“Keep an eye on where you put the book down – it may have moved when you come back.”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“The mess out there is because of a mess in here. Inner and outer talk to each other. That’s the truth of things. Let’s get to work.”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“It’s a time of great paradox: we want to live forever but seem intent on executing the earth. We are technicians of unimaginable advances but are growingly less literate to interpret a way the earth always spoke to us: through myth.”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“It is not good to be walking through these times without a story or three at your side.”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“It’s stories”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“A good metaphor is something you can hang your heart on.”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“What needs to change? Deepen? What kindness in me have I so abandoned that I could seek relationship with again?”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“As we all know”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“When you forget what you kneel upon”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“In a time when we are begging for a new story”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“It may not look like much”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“Beauty kicks-starts our attention. The real sublime. To behold it is almost scary because we suddenly have a longing to stand for something. Beauty not as generic but specific”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass

“Is it possible for a small book to contain the vast wild? Can its pages hold the cool breeze, the rustle of small things, the secret history of the earth and of your own face? Can a book help to break the spells holding us prisoner? This book can. Our time is one of breaking and breaking open, and Martin Shaw’s tales help us to reimagine our world so that we can rebuild on the ruins of our untenable civilization.”
― Martin Shaw, Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass