writers

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Wed 21 Nov 2018

Yourself

Posted by PJ under process, quote of the day, teachers, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.”

—Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) on writing, New York Times, May 21, 1986

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Laurel and Hardy, Ariana Grande, or the Salvation Army Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Wed 24 Oct 2018

Scary

Posted by PJ under quote of the day, themes, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.”

—John Edgar Wideman, Conversations with John Edgar Wideman, ed. Bonnie TuSmith

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Laurel and Hardy, Ariana Grande, or the Salvation Army Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Fri 19 Oct 2018

Shadow stories

Posted by PJ under quote of the day, stories, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories’ shadows—and they’re grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough.”

—Joy Williams, “Uncanny Singing That Comes From Certain Husks,” Why I Write, ed. Will Blythe

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Laurel and Hardy, Ariana Grande, or the Salvation Army Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Wed 10 Oct 2018

Gabor-y

Posted by PJ under dialogue, quote of the day, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“Nothing can break the mood of a piece of writing like bad dialogue. My students are miserable when they are reading an otherwise terrific story to the class and then hit a patch of dialogue that is so purple and expositional that it reads like something from a childhood play by the Gabor sisters….I can see the surprise of my students’ faces, because the dialogue looked okay on paper, yet now it sounds as if it were poorly translated from their native Hindi.”

—Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Orville and Wilbur, Katy Perry, or the Avengers. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Tue 2 Oct 2018

Our finest

Posted by PJ under courage and fear, doubt, quote of the day, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty.”

—Henry Miller, Sexus: the Rosy Crucifixion, Book I

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Orville and Wilbur, Katy Perry, or the Avengers. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Wed 5 Sep 2018

Novelists

Posted by PJ under novels, quote of the day, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“Novelists secrete a certain BO, which only other novelists detect…”

—Walker Percy, The Paris Review, Issue 103, Summer 1987

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Orville and Wilbur, Katy Perry, or the Avengers. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Thu 23 Aug 2018

Rebel Angels and other folks

Posted by PJ under novels, quote of the day, work, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“There have been plenty of self-destructive rebel-angel novelists over the years, but writing is about getting your work done and getting your work done every day. If you want to write novels, they take a long time, and they’re big, and they have a lot of words in them.”

—Michael Chabon, interview, Rolling Stone, September 27, 2001

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Orville and Wilbur, Katy Perry, or the Avengers. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Tue 7 Aug 2018

Imaginative

Posted by PJ under imagination, quote of the day, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got.”

—Philip José Farmer, quoted in his New York Times obituary, February 26, 2009

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Orville and Wilbur, Katy Perry, or the Avengers. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Wed 11 Jul 2018

Wanting it

Posted by PJ under quote of the day, wanting, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“You have to read and write on a daily basis. You have to be utterly vulnerable on the page, and utterly ruthless in revision. To write something good, you have to want it so bad that nothing else matters.”

—Chris Offutt, interviewed by Rob Trucks, Glimmer Train, Issue 5, Summer 1992

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Orville and Wilbur, Katy Perry, or the Avengers. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Tue 15 May 2018

The record

Posted by PJ under novels, quote of the day, writers, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“The novel remains for me one of the few forms where we can record man’s complexity and the strength and decency of his longings. Where we can describe, step by step, minute by minute, our not altogether unpleasant struggle to put ourselves into a viable and devout relationship to our beloved and mistaken world.”

—John Cheever, National Book Award acceptance speech for The Writer, September 1958

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Orville and Wilbur, Katy Perry, or the Avengers. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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