mere description

I have always thought it was worth paying attention to actions or qualities routinely dismissed as mere when they appear in writing about art, literature, the world. Mere description, for instance, is in reality the most vexing thing to attempt when faced with any form of art, let alone aspect of reality.

—Brian Dillon, “Essay on Affinity II,” Affinities: On Art and Fascination (New York Review of Books, 2023)

hard work

Art should be difficult to take up and equally hard to set aside.

desire to try

However complex and difficult the poem may be, it should engender in the reader a desire to unravel its mysteries.

party crasher

Reader as party crasher: He liked it when the start of a poem was somewhat uninviting.

desperate act

Revision often feels like shooting one’s horse.

difficult and rare

But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

—Baruch Spinoza, Ethics (1677)