The Journal
of Coquette
“I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic — in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world.
I am adjusted to myself.”
— Anaïs Nin
The Empress Moon Child — She Who Must Be Named
The empress of a whole country is dying — because no one has called her name.
Edie Sedgwick — The Girl Who Burned
She was the most beautiful thing in the room and she was disappearing. Everyone watched. Nobody stopped it.
Karin Boye — The Tree in Storm
Yes, it hurts when buds burst. Otherwise why would spring hesitate?
Leith Clark — The One Who Named Her Magazine Violet
She created the world I wanted to live in. Then she named it after my name.
Henry Miller — Forget Yourself
The world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people.
Tasha Tudor — A Life in the Garden
She lived in the 1830s by choice. Her garden was her cathedral, her illustrations were her prayers.
Anaïs Nin — On Living Poetically
I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic — in the sense that I live in my world.
The Victorian Language of Flowers
In an era when women could not speak freely, they learned to speak in petals.
On Beauty as Resistance
In a world that profits from your self-doubt, choosing beauty is an act of rebellion.
Tim Walker — The Fairy Tale Photographer
He photographs the world the way I have always wanted to see it — as if everything is possible and nothing is ordinary.
Marchesa Casati — A Living Work of Art
She wanted to be a living work of art. She burned through a fortune doing it, and she succeeded.