Greetings from White Rock BC Canada!
Yellow papers appeared on the pier today and changed things a bit. Folks on their walks stopped, curious. And walked away, curious. Hopefully Russ got a smile out of it.
SA4QE - The Slickman A4 Quotation Event
This fan event began in 2002 as a unique way of spreading the words of Russell Hoban. Every 4th February (Russell's birthday), readers around the world write their favourite quotations from his books on sheets of yellow A4 paper (the sort he used) and leave them in public places, and/or share them on social media with the hashtags #sa4qe and #russellhoban. Contributed photos and commentary were posted from 2002 to 2012 on the SA4QE site and then following this site's launch in 2012 new posts were uploaded here. Due to technical and resource issues we will no longer be including new posts here, but fans are welcome to continue celebrating! If you need a single sheet of yellow A4 and have enough ink in your printer you can download this PDF. Below is an archive of the posts to this site. We hope you enjoy these.
SA4QE 2013 - K. A. Laity - Claverack / NY, United States
Posted in the third floor ladies room of Albertus Hall at the College of Saint Rose.
Jump! Into the empty air,
Drop to the rocks down there.
Maybe some of us will make it.
I love the combination of hope and despair all at once.
SA4QE 2014 - Malgorzata Snigurowicz - Opole, Poland
This time I’m celebrating 4th February in Opole, my hometown.
In the morning there was sunlight.
I hung this quotation outside the local library just before going to work.
Winter is always either just ahead or just behind.
I wanted to leave this piece somewhere around the nearby Mlynowka channel. I took my dog, the one I decided to take in exactly a year ago, and we went for a walk. Having chosen the right spot, I put the yellow paper there on the ground and turned around to tie the dog’s leash to a lamppost. That was enough for the wind to grab the paper and throw it into the water, leaving me watching it float away.
SA4QE 2013 - Olaf Schneider - Beilefeld, Germany
The first time I saw her was in a dream, the colours were intense; the air was fall of vibrations; everything seemed magnified and slowed down.
The street lamps were lit but the sky was still light. She was waiting at a bus stop. A sign said BALSAMIC although there was nothing vinegary about the place, no friars and no Gilead in sight. There were nondescript buildings in warm colours, perhaps leaning a bit, perhaps painted on canvas. She was waiting for the bus; there were obscure figures queuing behind her.
[...]
There was the sign that said BALSAMIC; the letters were sharp and clear; they riffled like rail departures but the name stayed the same. There were those shaky-looking buildings and the bus stop and there she waited, the thin woman with the straw-coloured hair, blue eyes, and pale face, unknown but seeming to look at me round the edges of my memory. Sleeping or waking, I'd never seen her before.
Again and again she gestured with her clenched fist and said, 'Yes!' silently. She wanted me to follow her. Why? Here came the bus: FINSEY-OBAY, yellow, pink, and orange rice paper and bamboo lit from within like a Japanese lantern. Such a light against that not-yet-dark sky! Again she looked at me as she boarded the bus and I felt that thrill of terror as I stepped back. And again the sense of loss. What did she want? How could I find her again?
".....still I am of the world, still I have something to say, how could it be otherwise, nothing comes to an end, the action never stops, it only changes...."