Inside the Citadel of Karim Khan/Arg-e-Karim Khan. The paintings were plastered in the Qajar era when it was converted into a prison, now being restored.

You must have a room, or certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.

-Joseph Campbell (mythologist, writer)

I didn’t pay attention at all to the whole the late-night wars occurring over the past month, as it didn’t affect any shows I watch occasionally: Daily, Colbert, Mercer, 22 Minutes and Youtube for the rest of precious funny moments. But I saw Conan O’Brien’s final monologue on the Tonight Show and thought it was absolutely lovely. My favorite quote of this year… and it’s still January:

“To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

Honest, practical advice to not succumb to cynicism despite hard times. Nicely done.