The teeming mass of the working class…
“I didn’t want to be in the teeming mass of the working class… I didn’t want to live and die in the same place with only a week at the seaside in between. I dreamed…
To the heart…
“And there are plays – and books and songs and poems and dances – that are perhaps upsetting or intricate or unusual, that leave you unsure, but which you think about perhaps the next day,…
Words…
Struggling with words these days. Had a good natter about it last night. I think owning a typewriter might help. We’ll see. “Words… They’re innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other,…
A total whatever…
“Funny how ye tell people a story to make a point and ye fail, ye fail, a total disaster. Not only do ye no make yer point it winds up the exact fucking opposite man,…
Pale blue dot…
Been reading Carl Sagan this weekend. Prompted by Robin Ince talking about Pale Blue Dot on the Bookshambles podcast recorded at Bluedot Festival. Anyway… “Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open…
Jumping…
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” Kurt Vonnegut – If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young “In strange and uncertain times such…
Again and again…
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” Goethe – Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship…
Inhaling and exhaling…
I love walking alongside rivers and estuaries and seafronts and hearing water lapping, and waves washing. The best place for ideas, and writing, and thinking, dreaming, living and breathing. And this is why… “Although the…
Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing…
Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing 1. Never open a book with weather. 2. Avoid prologues. 3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. 4. Never use an adverb to modify the…
Don’t freeze up…
“Make your mistakes, take your chances, look silly, but keep on going. Don’t freeze up.” Thomas Wolfe – You Can’t Go Home Again