Lebowitz, Fran -- Interview by Susannah McNeely, Ruminator Magazine (2005-08/09)
Should novels generally be 600 pages? No, they should not. Half of writing, maybe 3/4 of writing, is editing. This seems to be a thing that has not gotten through to them. It’s my impression that you...
View ArticleOliver, Mary -- “Of Power and Time,” Blue Pastures (1995)
The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time. Mary Oliver (1935-2019)...
View ArticleGauss, Carl Friedrich -- Letter to Heinrich Christian Schumacher (1833-04-02)
You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length. [Sie...
View ArticleBecker, Carl -- The Declaration of Independence, ch. 2 “Natural Rights...
Generally speaking, men are influenced by books which clarify their own thought, which express their own notions well, or which suggest to them ideas which their minds are already predisposed to...
View ArticleFowler, Gene -- Quoted in H. Allen Smith, The Life and Legend of Gene Fowler,...
A book is never finished, it is abandoned. Gene Fowler (1890-1960) American journalist, author, and dramatist. [b. Eugene Devlan]Quoted in H. Allen Smith, The Life and Legend of Gene Fowler, ch. 27...
View ArticleGreenburg, Dan -- In Bill Hayward, Cat People (1978)
Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near-perfect method of writing avoidance. Dan Greenburg (1936-2023) American writer, humorist, journalistIn Bill Hayward, Cat People...
View ArticleHazlitt, William -- “Thoughts on Taste,” Edinburgh Magazine (1819-07)
It is erroneous to tie down individual genius to ideal models. Each person should do that, not which is best in itself, even supposing this could be known, but that which he can do best, which he will...
View ArticleHarrington, Michael -- Fragments of the Century, ch. 2 “The Death of Bohemia”...
Indeed, it is a cruel truth of the history of all art and literature that most would-be poets, writers, and painters fail. The man or woman of real talent is rare, the born genius rarer still. For...
View ArticleCatullus -- Carmina # 1 “To Cornelius Nepos,” ll. 1-4 [tr. MacNaghten (1925)]
So new, so smooth, my dainty book, A gift for whom? Cornelius, look, ‘Tis yours: for you in early days Were ever wont my rhymes to praise. [Cui dono lepidum novum libellum arido modo pumice expolitum?...
View ArticleMontesquieu, Baron de -- Persian Letters [Lettres Persanes], Letter 66, Rica...
The mania afflicting most French people is the desire to be witty, and the mania afflicting those who want to be witty is the desire to write books. However, this is a very bad idea. [La fureur de la...
View ArticleMontesquieu, Baron de -- Persian Letters [Lettres Persanes], Letter 66, Rica...
It seems to be a wise provision of nature that the follies of men should be short-lived; but books interfere and immortalize them. A fool, not content with having bored all those who have lived with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dante Alighieri -- The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 2 “Purgatorio,”...
Reader, had I the space to write at will, I should, if only briefly, sing a praise of that sweet draught. Would I were drinking still! But I have filled all the pages planned for this, my second,...
View ArticleMontesquieu, Baron de -- Persian Letters [Lettres Persanes], Letter 66, Rica...
Of all authors, I despise none more than the compilers, who go off in all directions looking for bits and pieces of other writers’ works, which they then stick into their own, like pieces of turf into...
View ArticleThe Heart of a Woman (1981)
If I wanted to write, I had to be willing to develop a kind of concentration found mostly in people awaiting execution. On realizing, after her first writers group reading, how casually she had taken...
View ArticleThe Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 5 (1963)
An old racetrack joke reminds you that your program contains all the winners’ names. I stare at my typewriter keys with the same thought.
View Article
