John Denham - Bobby Robson - James Joyce - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton - Samuel Beckett - John Keats - Extreme Universe TV - Dorothy Parker - Sarah Williams - Dean Koontz - Jack Kerouac - Sylvia Plath - George Carlin - Dylan Thomas - Waldemar Januszczak TV - Vincent : The Untold Story of Our Uncle TV - Vincent van Gogh - James Whistler - Troy 2004 - The Brave One 2007 - Freed slave - Frank Sinatra - All About Eve 1950 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Boardwalk Empire TV - Jim Al-Khalili - F W Bourdillon - John Lennon & Paul McCartney - Robert Frost - Isaac Babel - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Samuel Johnson - Christina Rosseti - William Shakespeare - Alexander Pushkin - Eugene O’Neill - Isaiah 21:11 - Koran 97:1-5 - John Milton - Percy Bysshe Shelley - Homer - Robert Southey - Ursula K le Guin - Twins 1988 - Moonstruck: Extraordinary Coma Boys TV - Sin City 2005 -
Night was our friend, our leader was Despair. John Denham, Essay on Virgil’s Aeneid
It wasn’t going to be our day on the night. Bobby Robson
The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit. James Joyce, Ulysses
It was a dark and stormy night. Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford, 1830
Vladimir: May one inquire where his Highness spent the night?
Estragon: In a ditch. Samuel Beckett, Waiting For Godot starring Stephen Brennan & Barry McGovern & Johnny Murphy & Sam McGovern et al, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Will night never come? ibid. Vladimir
Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art –
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores. John Keats, Bright Star
Tis the witching hour of night,
Orbed is the moon and bright,
And the stars they glisten, glisten,
Seeming with bright eyes to listen –
For what listen they? John Keats, A Prophecy
When I behold, upon the night’s starred face
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance. John Keats, When I Have Fears
To us the night sky is a fascinating spectacle. To our ancestors it was the key to their survival. It was this relationship with the heavens that led to some of mankind’s greatest discoveries and creations. Extreme Universe: Star Gates, National Geographic 2010
As only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you’ll live through the night. Dorothy Parker
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly, to be fearful of the night. Sarah Williams, Twilight Hours: A Legacy of Verse
Even as a child, she had preferred night to day, had enjoyed sitting out in the yard after sunset, under the star-speckled sky listening to frogs and crickets. Darkness soothed. It softened the sharp edges of the world, toned down the too-harsh colors. With the coming of twilight, the sky seemed to recede; the universe expanded. The night was bigger than the day, and in its realm, life seemed to have more possibilities. Dean Koontz, Midnight
At night in this part of the West the stars, as I had seen them in Wyoming, were as big as Roman Candles and as lonely as the Prince who’s lost his ancestral home and journeys across the spaces trying to find it again, and knows he never will. Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Ah, it was a fine night, a warm night, a wine-drinking night, a moony night, and a night to hug your girl and talk and spit and be heavengoing. ibid.
Suns, that set, may rise again;
But if once we lost this light,
’Tis with us perpetual night. Ben Jonson, Volpone, 1606
The night sky is only a sort of carbon paper,
Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars
Letting in the light, peephole after peephole –
A bone-white light, like death, behind all things. Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems
I buried my head under the darkness of the pillow and pretended it was night. I couldn’t see the point of getting up. I had nothing to look forward to. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. George Carlin
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night
This is a film about the edgy relationship that Art has with the Night. Waldemar Januszczak, The Art of the Night **** BBC 2011
Night has turned out to be one of Art’s most productive times of day. ibid.
The most devoted painter of the stars was that hardened lover of the witching hour Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh was obsessed with the night. ibid.
Gas lighting was an interesting challenge to paint of course. ibid.
The Night Hawks by Edward Hopper ... Night Hawks is like a still from a gangster movie. ibid.
The nocturnal imaginings of the Surrealists. ibid.
Dorothea Tanning ... One hundred and one years old ... These disturbing night fantasies of hers. ibid.
Impression Sunrise by Claude Monet: the picture which gave its name to Impressionism ... TV proof at last that Impression Sunrise actually shows a sunset. ibid.
He immortalised the night café. Vincent – The Untold Story of Our Uncle II, caption, 2011
The night is even more richly coloured than the day ... If only one pays attention to it, one sees that certain stars are citron yellow, while others have a pink glow or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And without my expiating on this theme, it should be clear that putting little white dots on a blue-black surface is not enough. Vincent van Gogh
I considered myself the inventor of Nocturnes until I saw Grimmy’s moonlit pictures. James Whistler
At night I see their faces. All the men I’ve killed. Troy 2004 starring Brad Pitt & Eric Bana & Orlando Bloom & Rose Byrne & Peter O'Toole & Diane Kruger & Brian Cox & Sean Bean & Julie Christie & Saffron Burrows et al, director Wolfgang Petersen, Achilles to Patroclus
I walk the streets at night now. The Brave One 2007 starring Jodie Foster & Terrence Howard & Naveen Andrews & Nicky Katt & Zoe Kravitz & Mary Steenburgen & Jane Adams & Dana Esckelson et al, director Neil Jordan
No day ever dawns for the black man. Nor is it looked for. For a slave it is all night. All night for ever. Freed slave
Basically, I’m for anything that gets you through the night – be it prayer, tranquillizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels. Frank Sinatra
Fasten your seatbelts – it’s going to be a bumpy night. All About Eve 1950 starring Bette Davis & Anne Baxter & Marilyn Monroe & George Sanders & Celeste Holm & Gary Merrill & Hugh Marlowe & Thelma Ritter & Gregory Ratoff & Barbara Bates et al, director Joseph L Mankiewicz, Margo