26 Quotes by Gregory Colbert

The whales do not sing because they have an answer, they sing because they have a song.

Letter 84An elephant with his trunk raised is a ladder to the stars.A breaching whale is a ladder to the bottom of the sea.My photographs are a ladder to my dreams.These letters are ladders to you.

Letter 74I still have the first letter that you wrote to me. I carry it with me like a garden in my pocket.If you come to me at this momentyour minutes will become hoursyour hours will become daysand your days will become a lifetime.I am never sure if I am reading the letter or the letter is reading me.

Letter 17Morning. The snow was falling outside. There was a white silence.My mother and I sat facing my father at the dining room table.There was something impenetrable about his gaze. It was like pack ice.And the ice was thickening.I could barely see into him.I knew.And they knew that I knew.He was broken.I did not even need to look at him.I could feel his brokenness all thorough the room.

Letter 68A pod of whales was lying like long reclining Buddhas on the sea.My sister and I put our ears to the bottom of the boat so we could listen to their songs.We turned to my grandfather and asked, "What do their song mean?""The whales do not sing because they have an answer," he said."They sing because they have a song.

Letter 1 To the princess of the elephants,I disappeared exactly one year ago. On that day I received a letter. It called me back to the place where my life with the elephants beganPlease forgive me, for the silence between us has been unbroken for one year.I will never be more of myself than in these letters.They are my maps of the bird path, and they are all that I know to be true.

Feather to fire,fire to bloodBlood to bone,bone to marrowMarrow to ashes,ashes to snow

Ever since my house burned down, I see the moon more clearly.

The works themselves can't be separate from the architecture or the music or the films. When you walk into the building, you're literally inside the work of art itself.