Category Archives: Writer quotes

Ann Patchett’s COMMONWEALTH (In Percentages)

Because Maria Semple stated (in an article I read a few days ago) that she is planning to read Ann Patchett’s new novel, ‘Commonwealth’, I (who had no idea Ann Patchett had a new novel coming out, ‘Bel Canto’ still on my … Continue reading

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Handy Resources

Brainpickings has compiled a nice list of 9 writing resources. Some are oh so familiar, perhaps all are to you. But I’m glad to be reminded of them. And quotes such as this one by Kurt Vonnegut, which you’ve probably … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (RIP Edition)

I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny. Elizabeth Peters, The Hippopotamus Pool Ah, but the above author’s ideas stood up and have never stood down. Armed in 2 pen names (Elizabeth Peters being my personal … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Mid-Year Edition Egad)

Actually, I don’t have a quote this time. But I do have a friend who, as he struggled with the final revisions of his due-to-be-published novel, literally lost his breath. Instead of celebrating his hard work, he was hospitalized. But he got … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Seriously Late Edition w/Rabbits)

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. —Anne Frank We tend to rotate which charities we give to monthly. Save The Children often tops the list. Also the Mae Tao … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Unchaste Edition)

True poets should be chaste, I know, but wherefore should their lines be so? —Catullus (Gaius Valerius, of course…) Of course he loved Lesbia! Sheesh. Get over it. Hopefully he ultimately got over it, IF he wasn’t 30 when he … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend: Early Edition (Due To Colds, Flu, Pediatric Dental ER’s, Close-Family Close Calls, Going Away For The Weekend & A Unicycle That Still Needs Mastering…)

Try, fail. Try again, fail better. —Samuel Beckett In Sunday’s typically heat-knit twilight, I glance up from pinching pie crust into old-fashioned, part curtains patterned in fat cherries. A palomino trots down my street, its rider guiding with the blithe … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend: Squirrel Edition Via Eliot

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heartbeat, and we should die of that roar, which is the other side of silence. … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Super Late Edition)

This time of year is also, always, about how against all humanly odds, there was enough oil to keep the Menorah lit after the temple in Jerusalem was sacked. And how–well, you know the pitch: let there be light, and … Continue reading

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Gopher Genius

Today, over on Nebula, writer Beth Hull’s website, Colonel Shifty offers up some vital, handy-dandy definitions  of publishing terms. Secretly (or not) I am hoping that Colonel Shifty’s next post will be to announce the launch of his gopher T-shirt line–perhaps similar to … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (The After The Turkey Edition With Cats & Corn Pudding)

What greater gift than the love of a cat. —Charles Dickens We returned to find the dummy comforter on our bed upchucked on, the real bedding beneath saved (mwahaha!), a puddle of cat pee under the slopsink in the laundry … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Strickland Speaking–W/Swedish Au Pair)

You may have tangible wealth untold; Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be — I had a Mother who read to me. –Strickland Gillilan Who read to me: Mother, great-grandmother, grandmothers, godmother, great … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (The Let’s Pretend It’s Still Saturday Edition)

Quote potpourri! Quote jambalaya! Quote papier mache! Quote mixed bean salad (with balsamic vinaigrette and BPA-free writing instruments)! There is no need for a writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell what mutton tastes like. It … Continue reading

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The After 9/11/2001 Post

Last year I posted this piece on 9/11/11, the crux of which is: One morning, as my boss and I walked across campus after a 9/11 tribute during which she’d read a poem to hundreds gathered at the special ceremony, … Continue reading

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Coasting From One Weekend Quote To The Next

Maybe I’m a writer because I’m desperately trying to clean up my mess. Other people go into therapy or become psychiatrists just to clean up the mess. Well, I couldn’t afford therapy at the time I needed it the most, … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (The “I Totally Forgot” Edition)

Finally going to read the book. The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before, and the pleasure you get from writing – rare but profound – remains at the true heart of the enterprise. … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend: Robinson Jeffers (Early Edition)

To feel greatly, and understand greatly, and express greatly, the natural Beauty, is the sole business of poetry. The rest’s diversion: those holy or noble sentiments, the intricate ideas, The love, lust, longing: reasons, but not the reason. —Robinson Jeffers … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Saroyan Edition)

How do you write? You write, man, you write, that’s how, and you do it the way the old English walnut tree puts forth leaf and fruit every year by the thousands. . . . If you practice an art … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Make Believe Edition–Or IS it)

When it was decided (When was that again, and by whom?) that we were all supposed to choose between fiction and nonfiction, what was not taken into account was that for some of us truth can never be an absolute, … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Gore Vidal Edition)

You can’t really succeed with a novel anyway; they’re too big. It’s like city planning. You can’t plan a perfect city because there’s too much going on that you can’t take into account. You can, however, write a perfect sentence … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Yet Another “Revision” Edition)

I work hard, I work very hard. All the books at leat 30 revisions. —Ha Jin In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don’t enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover … Continue reading

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Deep Summer Checkpoint

Two summers ago I wrote: I create escape beneath my yard’s wind- bent gazebo, books on spread gingham, the shrunk house I dragged into our shade, ticking stove, stranger’s voice in the toy wall phone he refuses. Create with a … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Heatwave Edition)

Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good? Such thinking, in the words of … Continue reading

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Quote(s) For The Weekend (Beach Edition)

The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea. –Isak Dinesen We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Solstice Parade Edition)

I love a parade… —Anonymous, Arden & Ohman and pretty much everyone who has ever stood on a curb with family and friends and cheered for utter fabulousness. Also: overheard all over town June 23, 2012, Santa Barbara.

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