Pablo Neruda
..quando el viento recorra
los huecos de tu calavera
te revelará tanto enigma,
susurrándote la verdad
donde estuvieron tus orejas.
from his poem "Por boca cerrada entran las moscas"
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
favorite sins
Kenny Chesney
It's always your favorite sins
that do you in.
from the song "You and Tequila"
It's always your favorite sins
that do you in.
from the song "You and Tequila"
Sunday, November 4, 2012
people who don't read
Eugène Ionesco
People who don’t read are brutes. It is better to write than to make war, isn’t it?
People who don’t read are brutes. It is better to write than to make war, isn’t it?
Monday, October 29, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
truth in writing
William Trevor
Truth is the most important thing that there is, and if you lose sight of it, your writing will be destroyed in the end.
Truth is the most important thing that there is, and if you lose sight of it, your writing will be destroyed in the end.
Friday, October 19, 2012
life
Archibald MacLeish
As one grows older and realizes what a lonely and uncertain place the world is one comes to value above everything else those evidences of human fortitude and dignity and virtue which it has, sometimes, to show.
from a letter to Henrietta Crosby dated Dec. 12, 1929
As one grows older and realizes what a lonely and uncertain place the world is one comes to value above everything else those evidences of human fortitude and dignity and virtue which it has, sometimes, to show.
from a letter to Henrietta Crosby dated Dec. 12, 1929
Thursday, October 18, 2012
self esteem
Allen Ginsberg
We is not ignoramuses.
from a letter to Carolyn Kizer dated Sept. 10, 1956
We is not ignoramuses.
from a letter to Carolyn Kizer dated Sept. 10, 1956
Sunday, October 14, 2012
stupidity
Anthony Burgess
Stupidity itself could be classified as an aspect of evil, since intelligence was required to work out, to the satisfaction of the individual soul, a rough and ready guide to moral action.
Stupidity itself could be classified as an aspect of evil, since intelligence was required to work out, to the satisfaction of the individual soul, a rough and ready guide to moral action.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
the right woman
James Ellroy
...she makes me afraid to die, in case there's no heaven and we won't be together in the afterlife. If a woman can do that, you've found the right woman.
...she makes me afraid to die, in case there's no heaven and we won't be together in the afterlife. If a woman can do that, you've found the right woman.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
being human
Maya Angelou
I agree with Terence. Terence said ... I am a human being. Nothing human can be alien to me. ... This man, not born white, not born free, without any chance of ever receiving citizenship, said, I am a human being. Nothing human can be alien to me. Well, I believe that. ... So I never have been very concerned about the world telling me how successful I am. I don’t need that.
I agree with Terence. Terence said ... I am a human being. Nothing human can be alien to me. ... This man, not born white, not born free, without any chance of ever receiving citizenship, said, I am a human being. Nothing human can be alien to me. Well, I believe that. ... So I never have been very concerned about the world telling me how successful I am. I don’t need that.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
wisdom
W. D. Snodgrass
There is a value underneath
The gold and silver in my teeth.
from the poem "April Inventory" (1957)
There is a value underneath
The gold and silver in my teeth.
from the poem "April Inventory" (1957)
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
sur la vie
Charles Baudelaire
"Nous avons fortement vécu, et nous cherchons ce que nous pourrions aimer et estimer."
from his poem "Portraits de Maîtresses" in "Le Spleen de Paris" (1869)
"Nous avons fortement vécu, et nous cherchons ce que nous pourrions aimer et estimer."
from his poem "Portraits de Maîtresses" in "Le Spleen de Paris" (1869)
Saturday, September 22, 2012
why write?
Ernest Hemingway
From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality. That is why you write and for no other reason that you know of. But what about all the reasons that no one knows?
From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality. That is why you write and for no other reason that you know of. But what about all the reasons that no one knows?
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
on capitalism
William Gaddis
...what we’re talking about is not [capitalism] itself, but its abuses, I don’t mean criminal but the abundant abuses just within the letter of the law. The essential question is whether it can survive these abuses given free rein and whether these abuses are inherent in the system itself. ... our best hope lies in bringing things under better and more equitable control, cutting back the temptations to unmitigated greed and bemused dishonesty...
...what we’re talking about is not [capitalism] itself, but its abuses, I don’t mean criminal but the abundant abuses just within the letter of the law. The essential question is whether it can survive these abuses given free rein and whether these abuses are inherent in the system itself. ... our best hope lies in bringing things under better and more equitable control, cutting back the temptations to unmitigated greed and bemused dishonesty...
Monday, September 17, 2012
gimme a break
Todd Wolfe
I can't quit you babe but I got to put you down for a while.
from the song "I Can't Quit You Baby"
I can't quit you babe but I got to put you down for a while.
from the song "I Can't Quit You Baby"
Sunday, September 16, 2012
the flapping mind
Gary Snyder
The only thing that is keeping the emotion alive is your own thoughts... You keep churning it over and over again. Your thoughts do not care about you. They only want to perpetuate themselves.
The only thing that is keeping the emotion alive is your own thoughts... You keep churning it over and over again. Your thoughts do not care about you. They only want to perpetuate themselves.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
you choose
Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood
If I gave you everything that I owned and asked for nothing in return,
would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride, take everything including my pride -
But spirit is something that no one destroys
from the song "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" by Traffic
If I gave you everything that I owned and asked for nothing in return,
would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride, take everything including my pride -
But spirit is something that no one destroys
from the song "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" by Traffic
on writing
William Trevor
I think self-confidence is a very dangerous thing for writers. I tend to write in a fragile, edgy, doubtful sort of way, trying things out all the time, never confident that I’ve got something right.
I think self-confidence is a very dangerous thing for writers. I tend to write in a fragile, edgy, doubtful sort of way, trying things out all the time, never confident that I’ve got something right.
Friday, September 14, 2012
what a writer needs
Hunter S. Thompson
I would say it hurts when you're right and it hurts when you're wrong, but it hurts a lot less when you're right. You have to be right in your judgments. That's probably the equivalent of what Hemingway said about having a shock-proof shit detector.
I would say it hurts when you're right and it hurts when you're wrong, but it hurts a lot less when you're right. You have to be right in your judgments. That's probably the equivalent of what Hemingway said about having a shock-proof shit detector.
please care
George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan
I've been fobbed off, and I've been fooled
I've been robbed and ridiculed
In day care centers and night schools
Handle me with care
Been stuck in airports, terrorized
Sent to meetings, hypnotized
Overexposed, commercialized
Handle me with care
...
I've been uptight and made a mess
But I'll clean it up myself, I guess
from "Handle Me With Care" by the Traveling Wilburys
I've been fobbed off, and I've been fooled
I've been robbed and ridiculed
In day care centers and night schools
Handle me with care
Been stuck in airports, terrorized
Sent to meetings, hypnotized
Overexposed, commercialized
Handle me with care
...
I've been uptight and made a mess
But I'll clean it up myself, I guess
from "Handle Me With Care" by the Traveling Wilburys
on writing
V. S. Naipaul
You can’t deny what you’ve learned; you can’t deny your travels; you can’t deny the nature of your life. I grew up in a small place and left it when I was quite young and entered the bigger world. You have to contain this in your writing.
You can’t deny what you’ve learned; you can’t deny your travels; you can’t deny the nature of your life. I grew up in a small place and left it when I was quite young and entered the bigger world. You have to contain this in your writing.
the truth in fiction
Maya Angelou
I look at some of the great novelists, and I think the reason they are great is that they’re telling the truth. The fact is they’re using made-up names, made-up people, made-up places, and made-up times, but they’re telling the truth about the human being—what we are capable of, what makes us lose, laugh, weep, fall down, and gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kill each other and love each other.
I look at some of the great novelists, and I think the reason they are great is that they’re telling the truth. The fact is they’re using made-up names, made-up people, made-up places, and made-up times, but they’re telling the truth about the human being—what we are capable of, what makes us lose, laugh, weep, fall down, and gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kill each other and love each other.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
on writing
Truman Capote
The writer's individual humanity, his word or gesture toward the world, has to appear almost like a character that makes contact with the reader. If the personality is vague or confused or merely literary, ça ne va pas.
The writer's individual humanity, his word or gesture toward the world, has to appear almost like a character that makes contact with the reader. If the personality is vague or confused or merely literary, ça ne va pas.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
on writing
Archibald MacLeish
You don’t write as a writer, you write as a man—a man with a certain hard-earned skill in the use of words, a particular, and particularly naked, consciousness of human life, of the human tragedy and triumph—a man who is moved by human life, who cannot take it for granted.
You don’t write as a writer, you write as a man—a man with a certain hard-earned skill in the use of words, a particular, and particularly naked, consciousness of human life, of the human tragedy and triumph—a man who is moved by human life, who cannot take it for granted.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
leadership
George Washington
Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God.
-- Inscription on the Washington Square arch in New York City, shown in a 1980s photo looking south to the World Trade Center's twin towers visible here beneath the arch.
on writing prose
Jack Kerouac
...in poetry you can be completely free to say anything you want, you don't have to tell a story, you can use secret puns, that's why I always say, when writing prose, “No time for poetry now, get your plain tale.”
...in poetry you can be completely free to say anything you want, you don't have to tell a story, you can use secret puns, that's why I always say, when writing prose, “No time for poetry now, get your plain tale.”
Thursday, September 6, 2012
carpe diem
Eihei Dogen
If this one day in the lifetime of a hundred years is lost, will you ever get your hands on it again?
If this one day in the lifetime of a hundred years is lost, will you ever get your hands on it again?
what it takes to be a writer
William Styron
...first would be a background in reading. A writer must have read an enormous amount by the time he begins to write...
The second thing is that you must love language. You must adore language—cherish it, and play with it and love what it does. You have to have a vocabulary...
Those are two of the most important things for a writer. The rest is passion and vision...
...first would be a background in reading. A writer must have read an enormous amount by the time he begins to write...
The second thing is that you must love language. You must adore language—cherish it, and play with it and love what it does. You have to have a vocabulary...
Those are two of the most important things for a writer. The rest is passion and vision...
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
naked lunch
William Burroughs
The title means exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.
speaking about his 1959 novel
The title means exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.
speaking about his 1959 novel
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
on writing
Jack Kerouac
Determination is the key; push through the reluctance. It's one lonely unbeatable will, against silence & darkness which has no defence.
Determination is the key; push through the reluctance. It's one lonely unbeatable will, against silence & darkness which has no defence.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
like the kinks
Jonathan Franzen
...it might have smoothed some kinks out of the work that were better not smoothed out. As a journalist, I’m always striving to become more professional, but as a fiction writer I’d rather remain an amateur.
...it might have smoothed some kinks out of the work that were better not smoothed out. As a journalist, I’m always striving to become more professional, but as a fiction writer I’d rather remain an amateur.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
what a writer needs
Ernest Hemingway
A writer without a sense of justice and of injustice would be better off editing the yearbook of a school for exceptional children than writing novels. ... The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.
A writer without a sense of justice and of injustice would be better off editing the yearbook of a school for exceptional children than writing novels. ... The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Time magazine
Allen Ginsberg
Are you going to let your emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
from his poem "America" (1956)
Are you going to let your emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
from his poem "America" (1956)
truth in fiction
Matthias Politycki
Die Ehre des Schriftstellers liegt doch gerade darin, die Wahrheit mittels Phantasie erst so richtig auf den Punkt zu bringen!
Die Ehre des Schriftstellers liegt doch gerade darin, die Wahrheit mittels Phantasie erst so richtig auf den Punkt zu bringen!
Friday, August 17, 2012
great writing
Archibald MacLeish
There was a time when I wondered whether the restrained & tense understatement of your prose would not limit you to a certain kind of material. Now no one can wonder that. The world of this book is a complete world, a world of emotion as well as of feeling. To subject the whole experience of a man's soul to the pure & perfect art of your prose is a great, a very great, achievement. ... You become in one book the great novelist of our time.
from a letter to Ernest Hemingway regarding "A Farewell to Arms"
There was a time when I wondered whether the restrained & tense understatement of your prose would not limit you to a certain kind of material. Now no one can wonder that. The world of this book is a complete world, a world of emotion as well as of feeling. To subject the whole experience of a man's soul to the pure & perfect art of your prose is a great, a very great, achievement. ... You become in one book the great novelist of our time.
from a letter to Ernest Hemingway regarding "A Farewell to Arms"
Thursday, August 16, 2012
professional writer
Anthony Burgess
The term professional [writer] is not meant to imply a high standard of commitment and attainment: it meant then, as it still does, the pursuit of a trade or calling to the end of paying the rent and buying liquor. I leave the myth of inspiration and agonised creative inaction to the amateurs.
The term professional [writer] is not meant to imply a high standard of commitment and attainment: it meant then, as it still does, the pursuit of a trade or calling to the end of paying the rent and buying liquor. I leave the myth of inspiration and agonised creative inaction to the amateurs.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Marilyn Monroe
Arthur Miller on Marilyn Monroe
Beneath all her insouciance and wit, death was her companion everywhere and at all times, and it may be that its unacknowledged presence was what lent her poignancy, dancing at the edge of oblivion as she was.
Beneath all her insouciance and wit, death was her companion everywhere and at all times, and it may be that its unacknowledged presence was what lent her poignancy, dancing at the edge of oblivion as she was.
Monday, August 13, 2012
transcience of the world
Dogen Kigan
To what may this world be likened?
Moonlight in a dewdrop
Falling from a duck's beak.
Waka poem 60
To what may this world be likened?
Moonlight in a dewdrop
Falling from a duck's beak.
Waka poem 60
Saturday, August 11, 2012
on book editors
Jack Kerouac
It's a terrible thing to contemplate the fact that editors ... are able to select those aspects of the novel that read best and therefore feel conscience-free to remove whatever which in the author's crucible of torn imaginings seems most pithy, but to the reader most delaying in his hot sin of "wanting to see what happens."
It's a terrible thing to contemplate the fact that editors ... are able to select those aspects of the novel that read best and therefore feel conscience-free to remove whatever which in the author's crucible of torn imaginings seems most pithy, but to the reader most delaying in his hot sin of "wanting to see what happens."
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
be yourself
Paul Bowles
I think it is a very harmful, disruptive thing to ask why am I, I? There isn't any why.
I think it is a very harmful, disruptive thing to ask why am I, I? There isn't any why.
Monday, August 6, 2012
moxie
Billie Holiday
I ain't good-looking
and my hair ain't curls.
I ain't good looking
and my hair ain't curls.
But my mother, she give me something,
it's going to carry me through this world.
from Billie's Blues
I ain't good-looking
and my hair ain't curls.
I ain't good looking
and my hair ain't curls.
But my mother, she give me something,
it's going to carry me through this world.
from Billie's Blues
the modern writer
Peter Matthiessen on Albert Camus
I never forget what Camus said in accepting his Nobel: modern writers can no longer isolate themselves in the artistic endeavor but must speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.
I never forget what Camus said in accepting his Nobel: modern writers can no longer isolate themselves in the artistic endeavor but must speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.
the job of writers
Antonio Tabucchi
It’s the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection. Perfection spawns doctrines, dictators and totalitarian ideas.
It’s the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection. Perfection spawns doctrines, dictators and totalitarian ideas.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
on writing
Erskine Caldwell
You have to use your imagination to invent something better than life because life itself is dull and prosaic.
You have to use your imagination to invent something better than life because life itself is dull and prosaic.
on writing
V. S. Naipaul
"...[writing] is the only noble calling. It is noble because it deals with the truth. You have to look for ways of dealing with your experience. You have to understand it and you have to understand the world. Writing is a constant striving after a deeper understanding. That is pretty noble.
"...[writing] is the only noble calling. It is noble because it deals with the truth. You have to look for ways of dealing with your experience. You have to understand it and you have to understand the world. Writing is a constant striving after a deeper understanding. That is pretty noble.
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