Author: Duke Ellington

Cited by

• Jamie Ford (1)
  • IN: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (2009) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: My poor heart is sentimental Not made of wood I got it bad and that ain't good.
    FROM: I Got it Bad and That Ain't Good, (1941), Song, US
• Louis Maistros (1)
  • IN: The Sound of Building Coffins (2009) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The river starts like a spring and the story just came out. The river starts like a spring and he's like a newborn baby. Tumbling, and spitting, and one day, attracted by a puddle he starts to run. He scurries and scampers and wants to get out to the marsh, and, after being followed by a big bubble, he does, and at the end of the run, he goes to the meander. Then he skips and dances and runs until he's exhausted and he lies down by the lake -- all horizontal lines, ripples, reflections, God-made and untouched. Then he goes over the falls and down into the whirlpool, the vortex of violence, and out of the whirlpool into the main track of the river. He widens, becomes broader, loses his adolescence, and down at the delta, passes between two cities. Like all cities on the opposite sides of delta you can find certain things in one and not the other, and vice-versa, so we call the cities Neo-Hip-Hot-Cool Kiddies' Community and the Village of the Virgins. The river passes between them and romps into the mother -- her Majesty The Sea -- and, of course, is no longer a river. But this is the climax, the heavenly anticipation of rebirth, for the sea will be drawn up into the sky for rain and down into wells and into springs and become the river again. So we call the river an optimist. We'll be able to play the ballad in any church or temple, because the optimist is a believer.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, US