January 2012
10 posts
“Read voraciously, many books at a time. Only then will you hear the conversation...”
– Ways of reading / from a working library
Something Should Remain Unsaid →
Narrative art must be clear, but it must also be mysterious. Something should remain unsaid, something just beyond our understanding, a secret. If it’s only clear, it’s kitsch; if it’s only mysterious (a much easier path), it’s condescending and pretentious and soon monotonous.
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
“Red carpets, interviews and social networking are all alien to him. When a...”
– A pin-up who is hard to pin down — www.independent.co.uk — Readability
“If you use willpower only to deny yourself pleasures, it becomes a grim,...”
– New Year’s Resolutions Stick When Willpower Is Reinforced - NYTimes.com
“In order to move up the scale of emotions and become more
attractive to the...”
– http://www.supercoach.com/tip0day.php
“The second secret, what they never tell you, is that yes, anyone can become a...”
– AdviceToWriters - Home - Two Secrets for Young Writers
““Everyone thinks that Beethoven had his string quartets completely in his...”
– Brian-Eno/Brian-Eno’s-Another-Green-World/nothing | Quotenik
December 2011
28 posts
Be Daring →
Be daring, take on anything. Don’t labor over little cameo works in which every word is to be perfect. Technique holds a reader from sentence to sentence, but only content will stay in his mind.
JOYCE CAROL OATES
283. →
“Shirley is a frequent political commentator of the conservative Republican...”
– Book Review: December 1941 | Open Letters Monthly - an Arts and Literature Review
“After suggesting [that young writers] look into The Writer’s Chapbook I...”
– AdviceToWriters - Home - Keep A Diary
Alfred-Kazin/Journals/book →
“We moved today to 415 Central Park West. Enormous business of packing and unpacking my books, which I have been carrying on my back for so many years. Lord, how I would like to get free of all these things sometime. I date my maturity from the day I realized there were books I could get along without.”
“Most people quit. If you don’t quit, if you rewrite, if you keep publishing in...”
– AdviceToWriters - Home - Are You Having Fun?
“The problem with trying to escape from decision-making is that that’s a...”
– This column will change your life: outsourcing ignorance | Life and style | The Guardian
Winterson on the importance of books
I heard today that one in three kids in the UK does not own a book. I would be dead if I had never found books. So I wouldn’t call them a luxury or a leisure item. I’d call them allies in the life and death struggle.
My old Jewish friend Mona Howard – nearly 90 and totally aware, says that we go through life carrying 2 bags: Time and Money. The Life and Death Struggle. When we are confronted, with difficulties or when we have personal problems, we have to know which bag to go to. Is it Time and Money, or is it more central to the core of who we are?
Books have always been central to the core of me. Fiction and poetry made me who I am; inevitable that I would start making the books in return.
“The Guardian: Why do you think you inspire enmity?
Bernard-Henri Lévy: Number...”
– 1, 2, 3 | Submitted For Your Perusal
“How hard you’re working is a good indicator of whether you’re doing...”
– This much I know: Jimmy Carr | Life and style | The Observer
“Every comedian is Marmite. You have that reflex action whereby you laugh or you...”
– This much I know: Jimmy Carr | Life and style | The Observer
“It’s wonderful to get an award, but as John Gielgud once said, the next...”
– This much I know: Judi Dench | Culture | The Observer
“I didn’t have any vices before the internet. There are a lot of cracks in...”
– This much I know: Miranda July | Life and style | The Observer
“My advice is to do what you can this second. Big plans that rely on other...”
– This much I know: Miranda July | Life and style | The Observer
“Do dialogue-let’s say-between a hobo and a high-class hooker, then between...”
– AdviceToWriters - Home - It Does Get Easier
“Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the...”
– AdviceToWriters - Home - The Arrangement of Words Matters
“Other parts of Again to Carthage offer a bit of marathon training advice: focus...”
– ZhurnalyWiki: Again to Carthage
“In an essay written last year for the SMiLE tour booklet, Van Dyke professes...”
– Orange Crate Art: That (in)famous line
““Your complete literary man writes all the time. It wakes him in the morning to...”
– John-Jay-Chapman/Greek-Genius/Writing | Quotenik
““For years, far too many years, I fell into the dangerous trap of being...”
– Abandon Ship | Quotenik
November 2011
36 posts
“A quote from Josh Kaufman’s new book “The Personal MBA”:
To keep yourself...”
– The Personal MBA - Blog - Get Everything Done
Picks from MBW 275: Steve Jobs… The Opera →
“The need for success and the fear of failure are two aspects of the same inner...”
– Carla-Needleman/The-Work-of-Craft/Failure | Quotenik
“Kahneman never grapples philosophically with the nature of rationality. He does,...”
– Jim Holt (via ayjay)
“People who fracture their time putting out fires seem more productive, or at...”
– Productivity and negative space — The Endeavour
“It is helpful to write always at the same time of day. Scheduled obligations...”
– AdviceToWriters - Home - No Day Without A Line
“Coleridge demurred only partly because he was afraid of the enormous outlay of...”
– Charles Lamb and the Lloyds! | stevereads
““How do you and your wife split songwriting chores?”
It’s an adventure....”
– Tom Waits on collaboration « Getting Things Done in Academia
“A great way to give thanks…
for the privileges we’ve got is to do...”
– Seth’s Blog: A great way to give thanks…
