…There are times when something is asked of us, and we find we must do it. There is no calculation involved, no measure of the necessity of the thing itself, the action that must be performed. There is simply an acknowledgment that we will do the thing in question, and then the thing is done, often at considerable personal cost. " "What goes into these decisions? What tiny factors, invisible, in the jutting edges of personality and circumstance, contribute to this inevitability?
Jesse BallAs far as ideas about book design: I have plenty. But I also try and let people do their jobs.
Jesse BallI like small books. I like durable books. I like plain books. I like small type and thin pages.
Jesse BallIf he acts, if he doesn't, it's meaningless. The whole thing goes forward. No one is important. No one at all.
Jesse BallFirst, he says, you have to go out into the world. This is not a simple matter of going outside one's door. No, that is simply going out. That's what one does when one is on the way to the store to buy a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a bottle of wine. When one goes out into the world, one is shedding preconceptions of past paths and ideas of past paths, and trying to move freely through an unsubstantiated and new geography.
Jesse Ball