Breathing on Your Own (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Walking one night along the boulevard Raspail with Gertrude Stein, Picasso saw a convoy of camouflaged artillery decked out in Cubist forms and color..." (more)
Key Phrases: Mein Herr

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This, unlike most books of quotations, is not culled from other anthologies, but is the product of thousands of books read and remembered over a lifetime.

Kehl, a professor of art at the University of Washington, is concerned with cultivating, in himself and others, fresh insight and unhackneyed response. The quotations here collected are those he has found most useful in cultivating independent thinking. He shares the educational goal defined by Sidney Jourard: "The task is to break the hypnotic spell, so that we become undeaf, unblind and multilingual, thereby letting the world speak to us in new voices and write all its possible meanings in the new book of our existence."

From the Publisher

Richard Kehl's collection is like a telephone directory in which all the entries are little spurts of wisdome - many of them wonderfully, appropriately contradictory. Let your neurons do the walking. - Tom Robbins

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Product Details

• Paperback: 217 pages
• Publisher: Laughing Elephant; First Printing edition (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883211417
• ISBN-13: 978-1883211417
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #813,615 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good selection, but..., September 1, 2006

By	Jennifer L. Boyer (Frederick, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As an avid quotes collector, I really appreciate that this is Richard Kehl's personal collection culled from various areas of his life, instead of a trite regurgitation of the same old tired quotes that appear in every anthology. And as with all collections, I loved some parts more than others. Some of the quotes were fabulous; others seemed weak and somewhat baffling when printed out of context. A line severed from the conversation in which it took place doesn't always make sense. Sometimes you need the framework of the conversation, either in part or in full, in order to understand what that line means--or to better understand its impact.

My biggest gripe with this book is that Kehl cited only the quotees' names and gave no additional information about where the quotes came from. And some of the quotes had no citations at all! I was thinking, "Okay, great, so this line was said/written by WS Merwin, but where? In one of his poems? If so, which one? Or was it something he said in an interview? Did he write it in a letter to a friend? And this next quote has no name or source affixed to it; where did it come from?"

On one hand, this is just a personal pet peeve of mine: I hate partial citations. Sometimes they can't be avoided, especially if quotes are obtained from secondhand sources. I myself unfortunately have a few such quotes in my collection. But the problem is that Kehl's entire collection is set up this way.

On the other hand, pet peeves aside, I think Kehl missed a great opportunity to open readers' eyes to literature and poetry that they might not have otherwise discovered. For example, maybe a reader will see in this book a quote that he absolutely loves, and it will spark a desire to read the entire poem/book in which the quote appeared. But if no poem/book is cited, how will he find it? Maybe he doesn't have the time or energy needed to read everything ever written by Rainer Maria Rilke in order to find the excellent work in which that one particular quote appeared. Googling the quote sometimes solves the mystery, but not always.

Aside from the citation issue, I did enjoy this book. I think it contains a fresh collection scattered throughout a wide array of subject categories--some of which are delightfully unconventional.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entering a marvelous garden of thought, January 16, 2002

By A Customer

Wherever you dip your mind in this one-of-kind collection -- and you are, after the first taste, tempted to dip it often and at length, you find words and ideas from memorable figures, from poets to philosophers, that move you, move your heart or soul or intellect in myriad directions; quotations that intrigue, inspire, provoke, stimulate, delight, encourage. For anyone with a desire to light some sparks in their own mind's eye, this is definitely a book worth having on the shelf and savoring. I own many books of quotations, and this is far and away my favorite.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Quote Book for those who don't usually like them!, December 26, 2004

By	Kelley "BTs Rule!" - See all my reviews

I received this as a birthday gift and just love it! It's about as far as you can get from the familiar books of quotation - wonderfully artful and quirky. I enjoy opening the pages randomly and never fail to find something unique and memorable.