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Andy Couturier

Andy Couturier is an essayist, poet and writing teacher. He lived in Japan for 4 years, where he taught, was a journalist, and worked on environmental causes. His first book is Writing Open the Mind and he has written for The Japan Times, Adbusters, The North American Review, Kyoto Journal, and The Oakalnd Tribune. He is the director The Opening, a center for courses in writing. http://theopening.org"


“I finally understood that I couldn’t avoid working to provide for myself, but that can also be a wonderfulthing, a beautiful thing.”
Andy Couturier
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“If you don't have a whole lot of unsatisfied people, the economy stops dead, doesn't it?”
Andy Couturier
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“I think all people want freedom, but they've got this idea inserted into their head about money.”
Andy Couturier
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“Sometimes just to touch the ground is enough for me, even if not a single thing grows from what I plant.”
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“Often I'll go outside and just place my hands on the soil, even if there's no work to do on it. When I am filled with worries, I do that and I can feel the energy of the mountains and of the trees.”
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“My goal is to draw a line with some 'flavor' to it.”
Andy Couturier
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“Time is what we have in this life, and how we use it determines what our life is.”
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“I thought I should make a place to bring light down into this world. All things that become realities start in that place of someone imagining them.”
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“What art should do, I think, is advance the generation into the next era. It should be one step ahead of the ordinary, ahead of what is already known. Art is what pulls on the next age. I’m not saying that my art is that, but that it would be good if it could be.”
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“Why is it that so many people start to value money so much that they trade in most of the hours and years of their life in order to get it?”
Andy Couturier
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“They have taken the idea of nonharming, of gentleness toward the earth, to a very radical level. Even the weeds are not enemies.”
Andy Couturier
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