Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[covingtoncat73]

“God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.”
― Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

“'I meant,' said Ipslore bitterly, 'what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?'
Death thought about it.
'CATS,' he said eventually. 'CATS ARE NICE.'”
― Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

[kennyc]

Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out
and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.

- Ernest Hemingway (from A Moveable Feast)

[KenMagee]

A fitting Terry Pratchett quote...

It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life

He was a great writer and he will be missed.

[covingtoncat73]

"I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe." ~ The Mysterious Axeman, letter to the Times Picayune March 13, 1919

[kennyc]

"How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him – he has known a fear beyond every other."
- John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath chapter 19

First published today in 1939
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath

[covingtoncat73]

“The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

[KenMagee]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

“The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

I love it - I'm off to read the whole Ballard now.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by KenMagee

I love it - I'm off to read the whole Ballard now.

Thanks, Ken. My family is Irish and French-Creole. We bring a whole new level of "mad," lol.

It is Spring, people.

“What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms.”
― Kobayashi Issa, Poems

"In every wood in every spring
There is a different green"
~ J.R.R. Tolkien

[kennyc]

Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'
- Robin Williams

[kennyc]

"Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.”

And:

“Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”
- Flannery O'Connor (born 3/25/1925 died at age 39 from Lupus)

I love her work, primarily short stories. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a classic - https://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html

[KenMagee]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Thanks, Ken. My family is Irish and French-Creole. We bring a whole new level of "mad," lol.

I'm Irish and have French (Huguenot) blood blended with a bit of Scottish red stuff too. It all mixes well to create a very sane, calm, intelligent person

And to get back on-topic:

God is good to the Irish, but no one else is; not even the Irish. Anonymous.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kennyc

...“Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”

- Flannery O'Connor (born 3/25/1925 died at age 39 from Lupus)....

I've heard that quote before and love it. One of the truly great quotes.

[covingtoncat73]

“Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see ...each other in life. Vanity, fear, desire, competition-- all such distortions within our own egos-- condition our vision of those in relation to us. Add to those distortions to our own egos the corresponding distortions in the egos of others, and you see how cloudy the glass must become through which we look at each other. That's how it is in all living relationships except when there is that rare case of two people who love intensely enough to burn through all those layers of opacity and see each other's naked hearts.”
― Tennessee Williams

“Don't you just love those long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't just an hour - but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands - and who knows what to do with it?”
― Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

[kennyc]

Happy Birthday Mr. Williams.

[bshar489]

"Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped."---Mark Watney, "The Martian" by Andy Weir

I laughed when I read this. It reflects how the male members of my family feel

Bergette