{"quotes":[{"text":"Fueled by my inspiration, I ran across the room to steal the cup of coffee the bookshelf had taken prisoner. Lapping the black watery brew like a hyena, I tossed the empty cup aside. I then returned to the chair to continue my divine act of creation. Hot blood swished in my head as my mighty pen stole across the page.","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["art","artists","artists-life","coffee","creation","creativity","fiction-writing","hyena","inspiration","novelists","payne","roman-payne","work","writing"],"id":3942,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"},{"text":"We look up to see if it is day or night. If stars burn cool and moon does shine, we take to smoke divine and wine. If breath of sun does belch its heat, we boil coffee and prepare to eat.","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["balance","coffee","day","drinking","eat","food","moon","night","payne","roman","seasons","smoke","smoking","stoic","sun","times","wine"],"id":16079,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"},{"text":"The poet believed that 'Beauty' first entered the world not at its creation, nor with the first garden, the first sunrise, the birth of the first man and woman and their first sexual act. The poet believed that 'Beauty' entered the world the day the first child blushed.","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["adam-and-eve","beauty","blush","blushing","childhood","childlike","childlikeness","children","eden","innocence","payne","roman-payne","romance"],"id":21902,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"},{"text":"I would do anything for you. Anything.'With that, he pushed his way out...And as the door eased shut, she realized that I love you could indeed be said without actually uttering the phrase.Actions did mean more than words.","author":"J.R. Ward","tags":["black-dagger-brotherhood","hurt","love","payne","siblings","vishous"],"id":27651,"author_id":"J.R.+Ward"},{"text":"Looking back on my life, I sigh. The caprice of youth goes with the wind, I’ve no regrets.","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["caprice","carpe-diem","great","learning","life","life-lessons","literature","novel","payne","regret","regrets","roman","roman-payne","sigh","time","wind","youth"],"id":27676,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"},{"text":"Women are extraordinary creatures!","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["creatures","extraordinary","extraordinary-women","fashion","gender","gender-equality","gender-identity","gender-stereotypes","girl","girls","love","moda","mode","payne","roman","style","woman","womanhood","women"],"id":52559,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"},{"text":"I sat up in the strange bed fearing it had been a dream, afraid I would never see her again. Not because I wanted anything from her, only her presence. The disappearance of the presence of beauty is the most despairing of events on this time-wheel of ours that rolls onward towards death.","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["afraid","beauty","beauty-in-literature","beauty-in-nature","bed","death","despair","fear","female","feminine","love","night","nocturnal","passing","passing-of-time","passion","payne","roman","roman-payne","woman","women"],"id":67912,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"},{"text":"It’s not that we have to leave this life one day, it's how many things we have to leave all at once: holding hands, hotel rooms, wine, summertime, drunkenness, and the physics of falling leaves, clothing, myrrh, perfumed hair, flirting friends, two strangers' glance; the reflection of the moon, with words like, 'Soon' ... 'do you want me?' ... '...To lie enlaced' ... 'and sleep entwined' thinking ahead, with thoughts behind...?' Ô, Why!Why can’t we leave this life slowly?","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["death","dying","living","losing-a-friend","love","moon","novel","payne","poetry","roman","romance","romantic"],"id":81544,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"},{"text":"It was a time I slept in many rooms, called myself by many names. I wandered through the quarters of the city like alluvium wanders the river banks. I knew every kind of joy, ascents of every hue. Mine was the twilight and the morning. Mine was a world of rooftops and love songs.","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["incipit","literature","payne","roman","rooftop-soliloquy"],"id":88076,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"},{"text":"...You see I believe in that stuff to: yoga and mystical powers. I once knew a man who could kill himself on command. Can you believe that? . . . Why do you laugh? . . . Believe it! By will of his own mind, he could make his heart stop beating for good' My neighbor poised and looked seriously at me, searching in my eyes. '...You laugh!' he repeated once more… 'You laugh, but he was a master at it! He could commit suicide at his own will!' Indeed, hearty laughter streamed through my nose. 'Could he do it perpetually?' I asked. 'Perpetually...?' My neighbor rubbed his waxy chin. 'I mean, is he still able to do it?' 'I’m not sure I understand.' 'Well? Then is he dead…?!'My neighbor's puzzled face slowly began to transform into a look of realization. 'But sir,' he said, 'Of course he’s dead! I mean to say... This man could kill himself on command, you see. And you don’t come back from the dead!' The two of us found ourselves crossing to the door so I could let my visitor out. I slapped him with friendliness on the shoulder. 'No, you don’t come back from the dead,' I agreed.","author":"Roman Payne","tags":["comical","death","funny","mind-powers","mystical-powers","mysticism","payne","suicide","the-wanderess","yoga"],"id":94508,"author_id":"Roman+Payne"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":52,"pages":6,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}