Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[kennyc]

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
- Dylan Thomas
February 20, 1950: Welsh poet Dylan Thomas arrived in New York 63 years ago today, where he began an American speaking tour that cemented his reputation as a literary genius and epic imbiber.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
- Dylan Thomas
February 20, 1950: Welsh poet Dylan Thomas arrived in New York 63 years ago today, where he began an American speaking tour that cemented his reputation as a literary genius and epic imbiber.

Great quote.

I've heard that somewhere.

[covingtoncat73]

[An extraterrestrial robot and spaceship has just landed on earth. The robot steps out of the spaceship...]

"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."

Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the nonstop frenetic news reports on television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."

"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I did," said ford. "It is."

"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"

"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"

"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."

Ford shrugged again.

"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."


/ Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

[kennyc]

"Ultimately literature is nothing but carpentry. Both are very hard work. Writing something is almost as hard as making a table. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood. Both are full of tricks and techniques. Basically very little magic and a lot of hard work involved."
- Gabriel García Márquez

[maianhvk]

"Friendship is like a book. It takes a few seconds to burn, but it takes years to write."
-- Unknown.

[kennyc]

"I find that writing is a constant battle with exactly the same problems you've always had."
- Douglas Adams (born today 3/11)

[astrangerhere]

"But lost chances are as much a part of life as chances taken, and a story cannot dwell on what might have been."

Paul Auster in The New York Trilogy

[kennyc]

"It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience."
- Albert Einstein (today, pi day 3/14 would have been his birthday)

The above is often paraphrased as "Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler."

[astrangerhere]

Occasionally, however, a woman writer is told gravely, ‘You write like a man.’ Since this is the highest accolade, presented as a judgment from above and closed to any further discussion, it would be impolite to ask, ‘Which man? Any man? You?...

''Why is your writing so violent?'' The question was asked in Liege, in Hamburg, in London, in Detroit, in New York City. It would be asked in China if I went to China. It would be asked in Moscow. In Hiroshima...

''Would you ask that question of a male writer,'' I responded, the last time it was put to me, not very long ago. After some hesitation, the answer came: ''No.'' ''Why not?'' I asked. Herewith, a long pause ensued. My interrogator knew the answer to the question but declined to answer it. Or perhaps he was thinking. I hope he still is.

Joyce Carol Oates in the New York Times in 1981

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Joyce Carol Oates in the New York Times in 1981

Brilliant quote! Having just finished her latest "The Accursed" - her writing is still powerful, playful, and erudite! What a mind!

[Oates' personal appearance (she's a tiny woman) and speaking voice/manner (she has a soft, high, little girl voice) are quite dissonant with her writing style & content] [Sort of like a 12 oz. attack trained fluffy Persian kitten! ]

She's long overdue for both the Pulitzer & Nobel prizes. IMHO.

Thanks for this quote!

[poohbear_nc]

One of the greatest, and most memorable, one-liners in literary history:

"I believe I have injured an organ."

[A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor]

[kennyc]

“There is no story that is not true.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

[astrangerhere]

"“At that moment she understood why people say You might want to sit down. There was inside of her a very modest physical collapse, not a faint but a sort of folding, as if she were an extension ruler and her ankles and knees and hips were all being brought together at closer angles.”

Ann Patchett | State of Wonder

[kennyc]

"I wanted to walk straight on through the red grass and over the edge of the world, which could not be very far away. The light and air about me told me that the world ended here: only the ground and sun and sky were left, and if one went a little farther there would only be sun and sky, and one would float off into them, like the tawny hawks which sailed over our heads making slow shadows on the grass."
— Willa Cather (My Ántonia)

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by kennyc

"I wanted to walk straight on through the red grass and over the edge of the world, which could not be very far away. The light and air abot me told me that the world ended here: only the ground and sun and sky were left, and if one went a little farther there would only be sun and sky, and one would float off into them, like the tawny hawks which sailed over our heads making slow shadows on the grass."
— Willa Cather (My Ántonia)

Always glad to see someone else reading (or at least quoting) Cather. Timely, as her letters will be published next month (against her express wishes).

Here's an excerpt of the NYTimes story:

Ms. Stout and Mr. Jewell, in their preface, acknowledge that publication of the letters “flagrantly” violates Cather’s wishes, expressed in a will that partially expired in 2011 with the death of her nephew and second executor, Charles Cather. But publication, they argue, advances the deeper purpose of Cather’s restrictions: cementing her status as a major literary artist.