#somerset maugham is the master of short stories

[0rdinarythoughts]

this story first appeared in the Jewish Talmud over 1500

years ago. Later it appeared in Muslim Sufi literature called.

“When Death Came to Baghdad”. The message is the same just the names and places have changed and later it was adapted by the British writer Somerset Maugham......!

APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA

There was once a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to the market to buy provisions, and in a short time the servant came back,white and trembling, he said, “Master,just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a man in the crowd, and when I turned I saw it was Death that had jolted me. He looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from the city so to avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will find me.”

The merchant lent him his horse, the servant mounted it, dug its spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop, he went.

Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw Death disguised as a man standing in the crowd, and he walked over to him and said, ‘Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?” The man said, “it was only a gesture of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”

-Epigraph by W. Somerset Maugham to John O’Hara,

1934 book of the same name.

- Artist: Anthony van Dyck, 1627, (Detail)

#lines #baghdad

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Artist: Anthony van Dyck, 1627, (Detail)

* * * * *

This story first appeared in the Jewish Talmud over 1500 years ago. Later it appeared in Muslim Sufi literature called “When Death Came to Baghdad”. The message is the same just the names and places have changed and later it was adapted by the British writer Somerset Maugham...... APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA There was once a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to the market to buy provisions, and in a short time the servant came back,white and trembling, he said, “Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a man in the crowd, and when I turned I saw it was Death that had jolted me. He looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from the city so to avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death won’t find me.” The merchant lent him his horse, the servant mounted it, dug its spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop, he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw Death disguised as a man standing in the crowd, and he walked over to him and said, ‘Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?” The man said, “it was only a gesture of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”

-Epigraph by W. Somerset Maugham to John O’Hara, 1934 book of the same name.

[Jim Fagiolo]

#Jim Fagiolo #W. Somerset Maugham #John O'Hara #Samarra #death #Anthony van Dyck #Jewish Talmud #stories #Muslim Sufi #When Death Came to Baghdad

[macrolit]

A one-page short story.

#w. somerset maugham #death #appointment in samarra #short story #flash fiction #story #wow #it packs a punch #somerset maugham is the master of short stories #favorites

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week - 33

Toni Erdmann - An off-beat German comedy about a daughter and her weird father. The daughter is s a high-flying business woman in Bucharest, and her old father is a bizarre prankster who surprise-visits her there, trying to pull her out of her stiff comfort zone. 

At nearly 3 hours, it’s a bit long, but is fresh and original. 6+/10

✴️  

First glorious watch - Wong Kar-Wai’s romantic Chungking Express, with Tony Leung & Faye Wong.

I always thought it was an action flick, (probably because it “was Tarantino’s favorite movie”) so I avoided it until now.

Here is Dinah Washington explaining why it was a mistake not to watch it!

Best film of the week!

✴️

Michelangelo Antonioni X 2:

✳️✳️✳️ Back to my classics: Antonioni‘s The Passenger, with doomed Jack Nicholson as David Locke, AKA Robertson. Based on  W. Somerset Maugham's ‘Appointment in Samarra‘. This is why I love movies. 10/10.

When you travel to the very end of the world.

✳️✳️✳️  Blowup - In Swinging London, a selfish photographer discovers that, while shooting a couple in the park, he recorded a murder in the background. Shoutouts to David Hemmings’  convertible Rolls-Royce and his white Jeans. With a performance by the actual Yardbirds. 9/10

“Nothing like a little disaster to sort things out”...

✴️

Tom McCarthy’s latest film, Stillwater, got quite a bit of pushover for using the Amanda Knox saga as inspiration without proper acknowledgement or credit. So that is legitimate. However, the sentimental story of father and daughter’s fraught relationship is clearly fictionalized and the background of the murder is secondary to that.

Like all of McCarthy’s slow and tender films (with the exception of ‘Million Dollar Arm‘), I liked it a lot.

✴️

2 about old people at the end of life:

✳️✳️✳️ Diane Keaton, dying of cancer, starts a cheerleading squad at a retirement community at Poms. A predictable, cheesy story that worked for me.

✳️✳️✳️ Re-watching all of Alexander Payne’s previous films: Next - About Schmidt. John Joseph Nicholson was one of the screen’s greatest actors. Now an old man at the end of his career, he discovers that his mediocre life had been meaningless, but for one little act of kindness (Photo Above).

8/10

✴️                                                 

I also saw Alexander Payne’s last film, Downsizing. It was so disappointing, that I felt the need to write a longer critique of this muddled turd.

First, I liked Alexander Payne: He was a great filmmaker who made 6 small, personal art films. But as always, when studios eventually give such artists big budgets, they screw up.

Where to start? First it was ‘Honey I shrank Matt Damon’ for environmental reasons, then you build a gated community for the Tiny, rich Americans. Then his wife Kristen Wiig leaves him and disappear from the story. Then he takes ecstasy at a disco party (The only fresh line of dialogue in the whole movie, when he’s under the influence - ‘I’m going to take off my shoes’.) Then he discovers an underclass of tiny, poor Mexicans who clean and maintain the middle class and lives outside the gates - just like in ‘Real’ America. Then there’s a political subplot where he becomes active helping those poor servants. Then he falls in love with a one-legged Vietnamese ‘Refugee-Saint’ with a fake limp, and even faker Vietnamese accent. And finally, at (1:35) the world as we know it is about to end, and he must choose between joining the Norwegian survivors into the Tiny People’s ‘Seed Vault’ of the future, or flying with his Vietnamese lover back into the present, to help the poor, before everybody eventually dies.

In short, it was terrible.

✴️ 

Gifted, about a cute 7 year old mathematical genius living with her uncle, after her mom committed suicide. It’s a light and fluffy tear-jerker that has a kernel of sweetness. The court drama part of this (or any other family drama) doesn’t work. 5+/10

✴️

Philip Seymour Hoffman X 4:

✳️✳️✳️ PT Anderson's 2012 masterly The Master, with masterful performances and precise score. Re-watch.

The first half, which was mostly about tortured drifter Joaquin Phoenix, was terrific. The Scientology cult of charismatic conman Philip Seymour Hoffman was less compelling. And the two stories converged exactly in the middle, (1:07) at the strange “Go Roving” naked dance. 8/10

✳️✳️✳️ 

Sidney Lumet’s last film Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). Another train wreck of a hack job: It’s always about money, crimes, robberies, death.

✳️✳️✳️ Charlie Kaufman’s “postmodern” Synecdoche, New York - I hated everything about it.

It made me regret everything I ever thought was important in my life, and come to realize that I’m sorry about everything.

✳️✳️✳️ My first Todd Solondz’s - the ironically misnamed, and depressingly morbid Happiness. It’s about 3 unhappy sisters and all the depraved people around them (including creepy masturbator Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Fortunately, my copy was truncated at the half mark. Big ouch.

✴️

I haven’t re-visited The good, the bad and the ugly for over 40 years until now, but I found Max Tohline’s analyses of Leone’s Editing style to be superior to the 3 hours film slog itself.

✴️                           

Before the Flood, Leonardo DiCaprio’s 2016 documentary about climate change. Before Greta Thunberg, and before trump, and before the End of The World.

Climate-deniers of the world, Unite in hell!

✴️

Wim Wender’s The end of violence: A big time Hollywood producer decides to become a simple Mexican gardener in LA. Unfortunately, he’s Bill Pullman.

I watched it because a scene in the film recreates Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, but the film was terrible all over and for many reasons.

Nighthawks, explained.

✴️

Sallah Shabati ( סאלח שבתי ‎), a 1964 satirical Israeli film, the original Borat. Stereotypically primitive and unfunny. 1/10

- - - - -

Throw-back to the art project:

Nighthawks Adora.

- - - - -

(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

[whattoreadnext]

KIPLING, Rudyard

British short-story writer and poet (1865-1936)

Kipling learned his craft working for English-language newspapers in India in the 1880s. He wrote reports, stories and poems about the British soldiers and administrators, their servants and the snake charmers, fortune-tellers and other characters of the towns they lived in. Later, during the Boer War, he worked as a correspondent in South Africa, where he was a friend of Cecil Rhodes. Under the circumstances, it would have been hard for him not to reflect the imperialist attitudes of his age, first sunny confidence and then the jingoistic panic which overtook it in late Victorian times. But he is a more rewarding writer than this suggests. His sympathies were always with subordinates -- with private soldiers rather than generals, servants rather than employers, children rather than adults. He wrote well about all three: his stories for and about children, in particular, are magnificent. Something like half of each collection - most books contain both stories and poems -- is nowadays hard to take, not least where he writes in baby-talk (as in the Just-So-Stories, O best-beloved) or uses funny spellings to evoke Cockney or Irish speech. But every archness is balanced by a gem of insight or sensitivity. In this, too, he was characteristic of his time.

KIM  (1901) This episodic novel is the story of a British orphan brought up as a beggar in Lahore, who becomes first the disciple of a wandering Buddhist monk and then an agent of the British secret service. He travels throughout India, and Kipling uses his adventures as a framework for descriptions of everyday scenes and characters, of such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world'.

Kipling's collections include Barrack-room Ballads, The Seven Seas and The Years Between (verse), Soldiers Three (stories), and the mixed prose-and-verse collections Many Inventions, Traffics and Discoveries, A Diversity of Creatures and Captains Courageous, and his children's books include the Just So Stories, the Jungle Book, Puck of Pook's Hill and the public-school Stalky and Co. Something of Myself is a guarded autobiography.

READ ON

Plain Tales from the Hills

Debits and Credits

To his stories about colonial adults : Noël Coward, 'Short Stories' his short stories J.G. Farrell, The Siege at Krishnapur about the 1857 Indian 'Mutiny', match Kipling's insight into the heyday of the Raj. John Masters, Nightrunners of Bengal W. Somerset Maugham, Orientations many short stories deal with the English at large in the enpire Paul Scott, The Raj Quartet

To Kipling's stories about children : Katherine Mansfield, Bliss and Other Stories

 more :Tags  Pathways  Themes & Places

#AUTHORS #KIPLING_Rudyard #COWARD_Noel #FARRELL_JG #MANSFIELD_Katherine #MASTERS_John #MAUGHAM_WS #SCOTT_Paul

[autumncottageattic]

Day 26 #marchmeetthemaker - Books, blogs and podcast

I don't like podcast at all. All the blogs I like are in english and I would really love to read it, but it is difficult for me to translate long and complex texts into my native language, so usually I don't read it but look at the pictures lol Books! I love to read, I love books forever-ever. And as long as I have no idea what to write today, let it be a long (but still short) list of my favorite books (I'm not sure that someone will read this, but still:)

1. Series of novels about Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery 2. "The Master and Margarita" by russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov 3. "Pygmalion" by Bernard Shaw 4. "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh 5. "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen (of course:) 6. "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck 7. "My Antonia" by Willa Cather 8. "The Forsyte Saga" by John Galsworthy 9. "The Woodlanders" and "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy (but to be honest I like all of his books) 10. "Pollyanna" by Eleanor Porter 11. "Je l'aimais, J'ai lu" and "35 kilos d'espoir" by Anna Gavalda 12. Witches Series by Terry Pratchett 13. "Under the Tuscan sun" by Frances Mayes 14. "The Railway Children" by Edith Nesbit 15. Susan Coolidge series of "What Katy Did" 16. "Little Lord Fauntleroy" and "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett 17. "The Scapegoat" and "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier 18. "Mio nonno era un ciliegio" by Angela Nanetti 19. "A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle 20. Many of O.Henry's short stories, but "The Ransom of Red Chief" and a "Peach" I truly adore 21. "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey" by Susan Wojciechowski 22. "Jennie Gerhardt" by Theodore Dreiser 23. "Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man", "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe", "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!" by Fannie Flagg 24. "The Shell Seekers" by Rosamunde Pilcher and her other books 25. "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach 26. "Nobody's boy" by Hector Malot 27. "The Canterville Ghost" and "Lady Windermere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde 28. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee 29. "Ball of fat" and "Bel Ami or The History of a Scoundrel" by Guy de Maupassant 30. "The Painted Veil" and "Theatre" by Somerset Maugham 31. "Znachor" by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz 32. All books of Jack London 33. "Little Zaches, Great Zinnober" by E. Hoffmann 34. "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë 35. "Pollyanna" by Eleanor H. Porter 36. “The Pursuit of Love” by Nancy Mitford 37. "My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell

instagram

#books #favorite books #witches #witchcraft #witch doll #crocheting #handmade toy #handmade witch

[a-bit-of-lit-blog]

i noticed y’all have been enjoying my novel masterposts. so im just going to keep posting because im obsessed with books like that T.T

for my study-like-rory studyblr friends who want to read all the books mentioned in gilmore girls (because hello?? who doesn’t??), here’s a list! pls let me know if i missed a book, but i think it’s quite a complete list! enjoy!!

#

1984 – George Orwell

A

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon

An American Tragedy – Theodore Dreiser

Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank

Archidamian War – Donald Kagen

The Art of Fiction  – Henry James

The Art of War – Sun Tzu

As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner

Atonement – Ian McEwan

The Awakening – Kate Chopin

Autobiography of a Face – Lucy Grealy

B

Babe – Dick King-Smith

Backlash – Susan Faludi

Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress – Dai Sijie

The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

Beloved – Toni Morrison

Beowulf – Seamus Heaney

The Bhagava Gita

The Bielski Brothers – Peter Duffy

Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women – Elizabeth Wurtzel

A Bolt From the Blue & other Essays – Mary McCarthy

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

Brick Lane – Monica Ali

Brigadoon – Alan Jay Lerner

C

Candide – Voltaire

The Canterbury Tales – Chaucer

Carrie –Stephen King

Catch – 22 – Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

The Celebrated Jumping Frog – Mark Twain

Charlotte’s Web – EB White

The Children’s Hour – Lilian Hellman

Christine – Stephen King

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

The Code of the Woosters – PG Wodehouse

The Collected Short Stories – Eudora Welty

The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

A Comedy of Errors – William Shakespeare

Complete Novels – Dawn Powell

The Complete Poems – Anne Sexton

Complete Stories – Dorothy Parker

A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

Cousin Bette – Honore de Balzac

Crime & Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Crimson Petal & the White – Michael Faber

The Crucible – Arthur Miller

Cujo – Stephen King

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon

D

Daughter of Fortune – Isabel Allende

David and Lisa – Dr. Theodore Issac Rubin

David Coperfield – Charles Dickens

The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

Deal Souls – Nikolai Gogol (Season 3, episode 3)

Demons – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller

Deenie – Judy Blume

The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson

The Dirt – Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mark, & Nikki Sixx

The Divine Comedy – Dante

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood – Rebecca Wells

Don Quijote – Cervantes

Driving Miss Daisy – Alfred Uhrv

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde ­– Robert Louis Stevenson

E

Complete Tales & Poems – Edgar Allan Poe

Eleanor Roosevelt – Blanche Wiesen Cook

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test – Tom Wolfe

Ella Minnow Pea – Mark Dunn

Eloise – Kay Thompson

Emily the Strange – Roger Reger

Emma – Jane Austen

Empire Falls – Richard Russo

Encyclopedia Brown – Donald J. Sobol

Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton

Ethics – Spinoza

Eva Luna – Isabel Allende

Everything is Illuminated – Jonathon Safran Foer

Extravagance – Gary Kist

F

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 911 – Michael Moore

The Fall of the Athenian Empire – Donald Kagan

Fat Land:How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World – Greg Critser

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson

The Fellowship of the Ring – J R R Tolkien

Fiddler on the Roof – Joseph Stein

The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom

Finnegan’s Wake – James Joyce

Fletch – Gregory McDonald

Flowers of Algernon – Daniel Keyes

The Fortress of Solitude – Jonathon Lethem

The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

Franny and Zooey – JD Salinger

Freaky Friday – Mary Rodgers

G

Galapagos – Kurt Vonnegut

Gender Trouble – Judith Baker

George W. Bushism – Jacob Weisberg

Gidget – Fredrick Kohner

Girl, Interrupted – Susanna Kaysen

The Ghostic Gospels – Elaine Pagels

The Godfather – Mario Puzo

The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

Goldilocks & the Three Bears – Alvin Granowsky

Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

The Good Soldier – Ford Maddox Ford

The Gospel According to Judy Bloom

The Graduate – Charles Webb

The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

The Group – Mary McCarthy

H

Hamlet – Shakespeare

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – JK Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – JK Rowling

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers

Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

Helter Skelter – Vincent Bugliosi

Henry IV, Part 1 – Shakespeare

Henry IV, Part 2 – Shakespeare

Henry V – Shakespeare

High Fidelity – Nick Hornby

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Edward Gibbons

Holidays on Ice – David Sedaris

The Holy Barbarians – Lawrence Lipton

House of Sand and Fog – Andre Dubus III

The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende

How to Breathe Underwater – Julie Orringer

How the Grinch Stole Christmas – Dr. Seuss

How the Light Gets In – MJ Hyland

Howl – Alan Ginsburg

The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo

I

The Illiad – Homer

I’m With the Band – Pamela des Barres

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote

Inferno – Dante

Inherit the Wind – Jerome Lawrence & Robert E Lee

Iron Weed – William J. Kennedy

It Takes a Village – Hilary Clinton

J

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan

Julius Caesar – Shakespeare

The Jungle – Upton Sinclair

Just a Couple of Days – Tony Vigorito

K

The Kitchen Boy – Robert Alexander

Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain

The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

L

Lady Chatterley’s Lover – DH Lawrence

The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 – Gore Vidal

Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman

The Legend of Bagger Vance – Steven Pressfield

Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis

Letters to a Young Poet – Rainer Maria Rilke

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them – Al Franken

Life of Pi – Yann Martel

Little Dorrit – Charles Dickens

The Little Locksmith – Katharine Butler Hathaway

The Little Match Girl – Hans Christian Anderson

Little Woman – Louisa May Alcott

Living History – Hillary Clinton

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

The Lottery & Other Stories – Shirley Jackson

The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

The Love Story – Eric Segal

M

Macbeth – Shakespeare

Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

The Manticore – Robertson Davies (Season 3, episode 3)

Marathon Man – William Goldman

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov

Memoirs of  Dutiful Daughter – Simone de Beauvoir

Memoirs of General WT Sherman – William Tecumseh Sherman

Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris

The Meaning of Consuelo – Judith Ortiz Cofer

Mencken’s Chrestomathy – HR Mencken

The Merry Wives of Windsor – Shakespeare

The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka

Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

The Miracle Worker – William Gibson

Moby Dick – Herman Melville

The Mojo Collection – Jim Irvin

Moliere – Hobart Chatfield Taylor

A Monetary History of the US – Milton Friedman

Monsieur Proust – Celeste Albaret

A Month of Sundays – Julie Mars

A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway

Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

Mutiny on the Bounty – Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall

My Lai 4 – Seymour M Hersh

My Life as Author and Editor – HR Mencken

My Life in Orange – Tim Guest

My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult

N

The Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer

The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri

The Nanny Diaries – Emma McLaughlin

Nervous System – Jan Lars Jensen

New Poems of Emily Dickinson

The New Way Things Work – David Macaulay

Nickel and Dimed – Barbara Ehrenreich

Night – Elie Wiesel

Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen

The Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism – William E Cain

Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell

Notes of a Dirty Old Man – Charles Bukowski

O

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

Old School – Tobias Wolff

Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

On the Road – Jack Keruac

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life – Amy Tan

Oracle Night – Paul Auster

Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood

Othello – Shakespeare

Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens

The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War – Donald Kagan

Out of Africa – Isac Dineson

The Outsiders – S. E. Hinton

P

A Passage to India – E.M. Forster

The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition – Donald Kagan

The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky

Peyton Place – Grace Metalious

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

Pigs at the Trough – Arianna Huffington

Pinocchio – Carlo Collodi

Please Kill Me – Legs McNeil & Gilliam McCain

The Polysyllabic Spree – Nick Hornby

The Portable Dorothy Parker

The Portable Nietzche

The Price of Loyalty – Ron Suskind

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

Property – Valerie Martin

Pushkin – TJ Binyon

Pygmalion – George Bernard Shaw

Q

Quattrocento – James McKean

A Quiet Storm – Rachel Howzell Hall

R

Rapunzel – Grimm Brothers

The Razor’s Edge – W Somerset Maugham

Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi

Rebecca – Daphne de Maurier

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm – Kate Douglas Wiggin

The Red Tent – Anita Diamant

Rescuing Patty Hearst – Virginia Holman

The Return of the King – JRR Tolkien

R is for Ricochet – Sue Grafton

Rita Hayworth – Stephen King

Robert’s Rules of Order – Henry Robert

Roman Fever – Edith Wharton

Romeo and Juliet – Shakespeare

A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf

A Room with a View – EM Forster

Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin

The Rough Guide to Europe

S

Sacred Time – Ursula Hegi

Sanctuary – William Faulkner

Savage Beauty – Nancy Milford

Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller – Henry James

The Scarecrow of Oz – Frank L. Baum

The Scarlet Letter – Nathanial Hawthorne

Seabiscuit – Laura Hillenbrand

The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvior

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd

Secrets of the Flesh – Judith Thurman

Selected Letters of Dawn Powell (1913-1965)

Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

A Separate Place – John Knowles

Several Biographies of Winston Churchill

Sexus – Henry Miller

The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafron

Shane – Jack Shaefer

The Shining – Stephen King

Siddartha – Hermann Hesse

S is for Silence – Sue Grafton

Slaughter-House 5 – Kurt Vonnegut

Small Island – Andrea Levy

Snows of Kilamanjaro – Ernest Hemingway

Snow White and Red Rose – Grimm Brothers

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy – Barrington Moore

The Song of Names – Norman Lebrecht

Song of the Simple Truth – Julia de Burgos

The Song Reader – Lisa Tucker

Songbook – Nick Hornby

The Sonnets – Shakespeare

Sonnets from the Portuegese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sophie’s Choice – William Styron

The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

Speak, Memory – Vladimir Nabakov

Stiff, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers – Mary Roach

The Story of my Life – Helen Keller

A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams

Stuart Little – EB White

Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust

Swimming with Giants – Anne Collett

Sybil – Flora Rheta Schreiber

T

A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

Tender is the Night – F Scott Fitzgerald

Term of Endearment – Larry McMurty

Time and Again – Jack Finney

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffeneggar

To Have and to Have Not – Ernest Hemingway

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

The Tragedy of Richard III – Shakespeare

Travel and Motoring through Europe – Myra Waldo

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith

The Trial – Franz Kafka

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters – Elisabeth Robinson

Truth & Beauty – Ann Patchett

Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom

U

Ulysses – James Joyce

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (1950-1962)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Unless – Carol Shields

V

Valley of the Dolls – Jacqueline Susann

The Vanishing Newspaper – Philip Meyers

Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

Velvet Underground – Joe Harvard

The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides

W

Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett

Walden – Henry David Thoreau

Walt Disney’s Bambi – Felix Salten

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

We Owe You Nothing – Daniel Sinker

What Colour is Your Parachute – Richard Nelson Bolles

What Happened to Baby Jane – Henry Farrell

When the Emperor Was Divine – Julie Otsuka

Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee

Wicked – Gregory Maguire

The Wizard of Oz – Frank L Baum

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Y

The Yearling – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion

OTHER RESOURCES:

19th Century Novels Masterpost

20th Century Novels Masterpost

21st Century Novels Masterpost

Rory Gilmore’s Reading List

Series Masterpost

#books #booklr #bookblr #books and libraries #bookstagram #studyblr #studyspo #studygram #student #study #mochi studies #elkstudies #blushstudies #studiees #chrissiestudies #studywithmaggie #studywithclover #studywithkal #education #educaticn #themedtimes #college #masterpost #studyblr masterpost #bullet journal #bujo #small studyblr #gilmore girls #rory gilmore #lorelai gilmore

[surejaya]

Printer's Devil Court

Printer's Devil Court by Susan Hill

A mysterious manuscript lands on the desk of the step-son of the late Dr Hugh Meredith, a country doctor with a prosperous and peaceful practice in a small English town. From the written account he has left behind, however, we learn that Meredith was haunted by events that took place years before, during his training as a junior doctor near London’s Fleet Street, in a neighbourhood virtually unchanged since Dickens’s times. Living then in rented digs, Meredith gets to know two other young medics, who have been carrying out audacious and terrifying research and experiments. Now they need the help of another who must be a doctor capable of total discretion and strong nerves. ‘Remember that what you know you can never un-know. If you are afraid, then...’ A gripping and suspenseful mystery by one of the masters of the genre… Susan Hill has been a professional writer for over 50 years. Her books have won the Whitbread, and John Llewellyn Prizes, and the W. Somerset Maugham Award and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I`m the King of the Castle and A Kind Man, and she has also published autobiography and collections of short stories. Her ghost story, The Woman in Black, has been running in London's West End since 1988. Susan Hill is married with two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.

Download : Printer's Devil Court Printer's Devil Court More Book at: Zaqist Book

#book #zaqist #zaqistbook #zaQist Book : Read Latest eBook

[ofpaintedflowers]

Saw your personal post of your bookshelf and was wondering if you have any more books recs? (That is not Neil Gaiman's nor Terry Pratchett's 'cause I already added all of their books on my tbr list lol). I genuinely love your taste.

ahahaha I’m very flattered to hear that you trust my taste, thank you friend!! Definitely, definitely start with Discworld and Good Omens but here are some of my other all time favourites and some books that just stick out of the general mass to me, in no particular order:

the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - just an excellent freacking novel that somehow carried through as my main comfort book since childhood, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve reread it at this point but the last time was last December and boy does it just never lose its charm. Don’t get intimidated by the length, it reads very well (even my 9 year old self didnt find it boring hahaha) and the multiple interwoven storylines although complex are easy to follow.

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham - tbh I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did but it won me over, it’s a quasi-autobiographical coming of age story about a shy boy with a club foot going through many of life’s ups and downs and trying to find the meaning in it. Maugham’s writing style is just lovely and it’s one of those books where you’ll find incoherent thoughts, fears and other emotions that youd usually brush off and not even bother to acknowledge staring back at you perfectly put into words and you just feel understood.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - Easily an all time favourite. Religious satire, if you enjoy Good Omens, check this one out next. Premise: the devil comes to soviet-era Moscow, does some people-watching and throws a party. Bulgakov wrote it to be a caricature of soviet society but I think it nevertheless passes the test of time and will be enjoyable to anyone. As far as translations go, I checked out the Burgin & O'Connor one a few years ago and recommend that one, I found it does the book justice.

I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan -  Another religious fiction. To be entirely honest I’m not yet done with this one but halfway through I do already love it enough to recommend it. Lucifer is offered a chance at redemption, the condition being that he has to take over the body of a writer who had just committed suicide and live a virtuous human life as him, with a trial period of a month to decide if he wants to commit to it. So he decides “fuck it I’m just gonna have some fun and also write a book about what’s it’s like to be me”. It’s profanely hilarious, witty and very thought provoking.

The Humans by Matt Haig - Similar premise to the last one actually, but in this case an alien takes over a scientist’s body and the book is his observations on humans. Not to sound dramatic but tbh this book cheered me up during a very unpleasant time in my life, it’s maybe nothing too elaborate and special but made me look at some simple every day things in a different light, and reading it just felt like a very good, long and comforting hug.

Momo by Michael Ende - Just a really sweet, whimsical and lighthearted tale about Time, Death and the dangers of capitalism. It’s a short childrens’ book that really sticks with you for a long time after you put it down and I strongly recommend it to anyone.

Century by Sarah Singleton - I generally have a huge weakness for cyclic storylines, and this one is just so aesthetic. I find it very similar in mood to a lot of Gaiman, like the Graveyard Book, Coraline, the Ocean at the End of the Lane. It’s melancholic, creepy, beautiful, has a nice steampunk-ish mood to it and the kind of plot that is better discovered as you go rather than described beforehand.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly - This one is a bit on the “Edgier” side of fairy tale retellings that I’m usually strongly against, but BoLT struck a chord with me fsr. It’s very reminiscent in terms of atmosphere (and kind of plot too) of Over the Garden Wall. If you like the “more serious takes on fairy tales” genre, check it out!

The Secret History by Donna Tartt - This book is just. So damn immersive and picturesque. When a scene is described you feel as if you’re there. It’s basically a book about a murder that isn’t focused on the investigation but rather on all the events and characters involved in it, it’s more an aesthetic experience than a far reaching story. I fell in love with Donna Tartt’s slow pacing and long descriptions and awfully pretentious but tragically likeable characters.

the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny - An imo outrageously underrated sci-fi/fantasy series by a friend of George Martin’s, about a dysfunctional royal family fighting for the throne of their world. It’s a bit convoluted and would be long to describe but the world building in this series is absolutely incredible and very unique and different from most high-fantasy, I strongly strongly recommend it to all fans of more popular series like LoTR or ASoIF or Name of the Wind.

Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko - Modern fantasy book series that I’ll forever have a soft spot for. The set up is that among regular humans there are some called Others that can manipulate energy and cast spells, and basically have varying levels of supernatural powers. These are divided into the Dark Ones and the Light Ones and both sides try to keep up a balance of good and evil in the world by surveying one another. That one too is a bit complicated to explain but it’s really interesting and the stories touch up on lots of different topics and have lots of fascinating reflections about morality done in an entertaining way through endearing and marvelously flawed characters. Here though, I don’t know how well the translation was done, sorry about that.

A general author recommendation is Christopher Moore’s stuff!! I’ve been making my way through his books to ease my Discworld withdrawal pains, and while I do still prefer Pratchett by ten miles, Moore’s books are genuinely laugh-out-loud hilarious and endearing.

#long post #ofpaintedrambles #rambles a LOT lmfao sorry #ofpaintedanswers #books #book recs

[allbestnet]

Popular Critically Acclaimed Books: [1911 - 1920]

Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton (1911)

Zuleika Dobson - Max Beerbohm (1911)

Under Western Eyes - Joseph Conrad (1911)

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)

The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle - Joseph A. Schumpeter (1911)

My First Summer in the Sierra - John Muir (1911)

Death in Venice - Thomas Mann (1912)

Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)

The Serious Game - Hjalmar Söderberg (1912)

Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey (1912)

Pygmalion - Bernard Shaw (1912)

Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man - James Weldon Johnson (1912)

Selected Papers on Hysteria - Sigmund Freud (1912)

The Problems of Philosophy - Bertrand Russell (1912)

The Montessori Method - Maria Montessori (1912)

Home of the Blizzard - Douglas Mawson (1912)

In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust (1913)

Sons and Lovers - D. H. Lawrence (1913)

The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton (1913)

Alcools - Guillaume Apollinaire (1913)

Petersburg - Andrei Bely (1913)

The Wanderer - Henri Alain-Fournier (1913)

The Warlord of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs (1913)

O Pioneers! - Willa Cather (1913)

My Childhood - Maxim Gorky (1913)

The Principia Mathematica - Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell (1913)

Scott's Last Expedition: The Journals - Robert Falcon Scott (1913)

Dubliners - James Joyce (1914)

The Prussian Officer - D. H. Lawrence (1914)

Kokoro - Sōseki Natsume (1914)

The Emperor of Portugallia - Selma Lagerlof (1914)

On Narcissism - Sigmund Freud (1914)

Through the Brazilian Wilderness - Theodore Roosevelt (1914)

Journal of a Trapper - Osborne Russell (1914)

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka (1915)

The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford (1915)

The Rainbow - D. H. Lawrence (1915)

The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan (1915)

Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham (1915)

Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories - Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1915)

The Scarlet Plague - Jack London (1915)

The Voyage Out - Virginia Woolf (1915)

Spoon River Anthology - Edgar Lee Masters (1915)

Instincts and Their Vicissitudes - Sigmund Freud (1915)

Collected Short Stories of Saki - Saki (1916)

The Complete Short Stories of Jack London - Jack London (1916)

Greenmantle - John Buchan (1916)

Home and the World - Rabindranath Tagore (1916)

The Mind and Society - Vilfredo Pareto (1916)

Psychology of the Unconscious - C.G. Jung (1916)

A Critique of the Theory of Evolution - Thomas Hunt Morgan (1916)

Julia Ward Howe - Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott (1916)

With Americans of Past and Present Days - Jean Jules Jusserand (1916)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce (1917)

Poems by Machado - Antonio Machado (1917)

The Shadow Line - Joseph Conrad (1917)

Prufrock and Other Observations - T.S. Eliot (1917)

His Family - Ernest Poole (1917)

Relativity - Albert Einstein (1917)

On Growth and Form - D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1917)

Study of Organic Inferiority and Its Physical Compensation: A Contribution to Clinical Medicine - Alfred Adler (1917)

In the Land of White Death - Valerian Albanov (1917)

Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed - William Cabell Bruce (1917)

My Antonia - Willa Cather (1918)

Diary of a Madman and Other Stories - Xun Lu (1918)

Calligrammes - Guillaume Apollinaire (1918)

Indian Summer of a Forsyte - John Galsworthy (1918)

The Loyal Subject - Heinrich Mann (1918)

The Magnificent Ambersons - Booth Tarkington (1918)

The Elements of Style - William Strunk, Jr and E. B. White (1918)

The Education of Henry Adams - Henry Adams (1918)

Eminent Victorians - Lytton Strachey (1918)

Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres - Henry Adams (1918)

Decline of the West - Oswald Spengler (1918)

A History of the Civil War - James Ford Rhodes (1918)

Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson (1919)

Lad: a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune (1919)

Demian - Hermann Hesse (1919)

The Waning of the Middle Ages - Johan Huizinga (1919)

Prejudices - H. L. Mencken (1919)

The American Language - H. L. Mencken (1919)

Ten Days That Shook the World - John Reed (1919)

South - Ernest Shackleton (1919)

The Life of John Marshall - Albert J. Beveridge (1919)

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton (1920)

Women in Love - D. H. Lawrence (1920)

Main Street - Sinclair Lewis (1920)

In Chancery - John Galsworthy (1920)

Awakening - John Galsworthy (1920)

The Poems of Wilfred Owen - Wilfred Owen (1920)

Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset (1920)

Growth of the Soil - Knut Hamsun (1920)

Cheri - Colette (1920)

This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920)

The Frontier in American History - Frederick Jackson Turner (1920)

Beyond the Pleasure Principle - Sigmund Freud (1920)

The War with Mexico - Justin H. Smith (1920)

#best #books #list #1911-1920

[williamlwolf89]

133 Writing Quotes to Motivate, Inspire, & Kick Your Butt in 2020

Who doesn’t love writing quotes?

A good quote can uplift you. It can encourage you when you feel like giving up. It can inspire you when you need a tiny lil’ spark to start writing.

In this simple, easy-to-read resource, I’ve compiled a list of inspiring, motivational quotes about writing and life that have been shared with the world by famous authors, public figures, and great literary minds, both past and present:

27 Inspirational Writing Quotes

36 Quotes About Writing

24 Writing Quotes of Encouragement

46 Motivational Quotes for Writers

Let’s jump in.

27 Inspirational Writing Quotes

1. You fail only if…

“You fail only if you stop writing.” (Click to Tweet) — Ray Bradbury

2. Type a little faster…

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.” (Click to Tweet) — Isaac Asimov

3. Do it for joy…

“I’ve written because it fulfilled me. Maybe it paid off the mortgage on the house and got the kids through college, but those things were on the side — I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever.” (Click to Tweet) — Stephen King

4. You must write it…

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” (Click to Tweet) — Toni Morrison

5. Taste life…

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” (Click to Tweet) — Anaïs Nin

6. Don’t water it down…

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; (and) don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” (Click to Tweet) — Franz Kafka

7. Write every day of your life…

“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” (Click to Tweet) — Ray Bradbury

8. Cut it to the bone…

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.” (Click to Tweet) — Stephen King

9. Everything in life is writable…

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” (Click to Tweet) — Sylvia Plath

10. How vain is it…

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” (Click to Tweet) — Henry David Thoreau

11. What is written without effort…

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” (Click to Tweet) — Samuel Johnson

12. Change more lives…

“90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head.” (Click to Tweet) — Jon Acuff

13. Don’t quit…

“You can’t fail if you don’t quit. You can’t succeed if you don’t start.” (Click to Tweet) — Michael Hyatt

14. That’s how you create art…

“Write something that’s worth fighting over. Because that’s how you change things. That’s how you create art.” (Click to Tweet) — Jeff Goins

15. Determination never does…

“Inspiration may sometimes fail to show up for work in the morning, but determination never does.” (Click to Tweet) — K.M. Weiland

16. Exercise the writing muscle…

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” — Jane Yolen

17. Write what disturbs you…

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” — Natalie Goldberg

18. Write what…

“Write what should not be forgotten.” — Isabel Allende

19. Lens to focus…

“Words are a lens to focus one’s mind.” — Ayn Rand

20. Breathings of your heart…

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” — William Wadsworth

21. Blank page…

“You may not always write well, but you can edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” — Jodi Picoult

22. No talent for writing…

“It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.” — Robert Benchley

23. The most beautiful things…

“The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.” — Andre Gide

24. You create them…

“Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” — Chris Grosser

25. Write something worth reading…

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” (Click to Tweet) — Benjamin Franklin

26. Better than perfect…

“Done is better than perfect.” — Sheryl Sandberg

27. No such thing as writer’s block…

“There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.” (Click to Tweet) — Terry Pratchett

Back to Top

36 Quotes About Writing

1. No greater agony…

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” (Click to Tweet) — Maya Angelou

2. Every secret of a writer’s soul…

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” (Click to Tweet) — Virginia Woolf

3. Show me the glint of light…

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” (Click to Tweet) — Anton Chekhov

4. Surprise…

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” — Robert Frost

5. The first draft…

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” — Terry Pratchett

6. One of the exquisite pleasures of writing…

“I would write a book, or a short story, at least three times — once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say. Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one’s fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.” — Bernard Malamud

7. The difference between…

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” (Click to Tweet) — Mark Twain

8. The whooshing sound…

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” (Click to Tweet) — Douglas Adams

9. Write as clearly as I can…

“The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.” — E.B. White

10. Words can be like x-rays…

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” — Aldous Huxley

11. A lesson in creative writing…

“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. (…) All they do is show you’ve been to college.” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

12. Find the right words…

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” — Jack Kerouac

13. When I sit down to write…

“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.” — George Orwell

14. Only a great man can write it…

“Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.” — Oscar Wilde

15. Leave out the parts…

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” — Elmore Leonard

16. My courage is reborn…

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” — Anne Frank

17. A person is a fool to become a writer…

“A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.” (Click to Tweet) — Roald Dahl

18. No one knows…

���There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” — Somerset Maugham

19. To discover…

“I write to discover what I know.” — Flannery O’Connor

20. Wants to be written…

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” — Madeleine L’Engle

21. Writing is easy…

“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” (Click to Tweet) — Gene Fowler

22. Never have to change…

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” — Saul Bellow

23. No shortcuts…

“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.” — Larry L. King

24. Irritated by my own writing…

“I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.” — Gustave Flaubert

25. Mighty book, mighty theme…

“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” — Herman Melville

26. Good writing…

“Good writing is rewriting.” — Truman Capote

27. Writing advice…

“Don’t take anyone’s writing advice too seriously.” — Lev Grossman

28. The Muse…

“Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.” — William S. Burroughs

29. Using two words…

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” — Thomas Jefferson

30. Greatest part of a writer…

“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.” — Samuel Johnson

31. Great writer…

“Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer.” — Ray Bradbury

32. Do not hoard…

“Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.” — Annie Dillard

33. You can make anything…

“You can make anything by writing.” — C.S. Lewis

34. Have something to say…

“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

35. Failed writers…

“Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.” — T.S. Eliot

36. Wake up…

“I wake up in the morning and my mind starts making sentences, and I have to get rid of them fast — talk them or write them down.” — Ernest Hemingway

Back to Top

24 Writing Quotes of Encouragement

1. Waited for perfection…

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” (Click to Tweet) — Margaret Atwood

2. The good writers…

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” (Click to Tweet) — Orson Scott Card

3. Start writing…

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” (Click to Tweet) — Louis L’Amour

4. A writer needs three things…

“A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.” — William Faulkner

5. Didn’t quit…

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” — Richard Bach

6. One true sentence…

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” — Ernest Hemingway

7. Part of the learning process…

“You have to resign yourself to wasting lots of trees before you write anything really good. That’s just how it is. It’s like learning an instrument. You’ve got to be prepared for hitting wrong notes occasionally, or quite a lot. That’s just part of the learning process.” (Click to Tweet) — J.K. Rowling

8. Road to achievement…

“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” — C. S. Lewis

9. Writing is more difficult…

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” — Thomas Mann

10. Tell it as best you can…

“(…) write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.” (Click to Tweet) — Neil Gaiman

11. What you have to say…

“Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” — Barbara Kingsolver

12. Pouring yourself into your work…

“When you are pouring yourself into your work and bringing your unique perspective and skills to the table, then you are adding value that only you are capable of contributing.” (Click to Tweet) — Todd Henry

13. Like driving a car at night…

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” — E. L. Doctorow

14. Be brave…

“We were born to be brave.” (Click to Tweet) — Bob Goff

15. Start somewhere…

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” (Click to Tweet) — Anne Lamott

16. Rejection slips…

“I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long.” — Louise Brown

17. Ideas are like rabbits…

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” — John Steinbeck

18. Ideas are like rabbits…

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.” — Erica Jong

19. Meant to read it…

“If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.” — Wally Lamb

20. They know it…

“People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.” — R.L. Stine

21. Writing prompts…

“Most writers draw a blank when they first start with writing prompts. Keep pushing through, because something thrilling will start to happen.” — Mel Wicks

22. None of their business…

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” — Ernest Hemingway

23. Keep it simple…

“I do not over-intellectualise the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the d*mned story.” — Tom Clancy

24. Surviving the rollercoaster…

“Being a writer is not just about typing. It’s also about surviving the rollercoaster of the creative journey.” (Click to Tweet) — Joanna Penn

46 Uplifting, Motivational Quotes for Writers (or Anyone Really)

1. Success is no accident…

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” — Pele

2. Count the days…

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” — Muhammad Ali

3. If my determination…

“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” — Og Mandino

4. Hard work…

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” — Tim Notke

5. Live and learn…

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” — Mahatma Gandhi

6. Living our fears…

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” — Les Brown

7. Perseverance…

“I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.” — John D. Rockefeller

8. Meant to be reached…

“A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.” — Bruce Lee

9. Not a product of my circumstances…

“I’m not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” — Stephen Covey

10. Fear of failure…

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve, the fear of failure.” — Paulo Coelho

11. The whole secret…

“The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.” — Henry Ford

12. Have to settle…

“If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn

13. Perfection…

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” — Vince Lombardi

14. Stepping stone…

“Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” — Oprah Winfrey

15. Self-confidence…

“The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do.” — Swati Sharma

16. Great work…

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” — Steve Jobs

17. Successful people…

“Unsuccessful people make their decisions based on their current situations. Successful people make their decisions based on where they want to be.” — Benjamin Hardy

18. Success…

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill

19. Born to win…

“You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” — Zig Ziglar

20. Tried anything new…

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” — Albert Einstein

21. Learn from the mistakes…

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

22. With all you have…

“Do what you can with all you have, wherever you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt

23. All our dreams…

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney

24. Our greatest story…

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius

25. Enough time…

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” — H. Jackson Brown Jr.

26. Hustle…

“What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110% all the time.” — Don Zimmer

27. The best you can…

“Do the best you can. No one can do more than that.” — John Wooden

28. What we fear…

“What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

29. See opportunities…

“If you believe it’ll work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you don’t believe it’ll work out, you’ll see obstacles.” — Wayne Dyer

30. Strive to be worthy…

“Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.” — Abraham Lincoln

31. Excellence…

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle

32. Key to success…

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” — Arthur Ashe

33. Can’t lose…

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” — Bill Gates

34. Comfort zone…

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” — Brian Tracy

35. Positive thought…

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.” — Dalai Lama

36. Develop success…

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” — Dale Carnegie

37. Expect great things…

“You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” — Michael Jordan

38. Do small things…

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” — Napoleon Hill

39. The other side of fear…

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” — George Addair

40. Path to success…

“The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” — Tony Robbins

41. Tough times…

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” — Robert Schuller

42. Left undone…

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” — Pablo Picasso

43. Keep going…

“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson

44. One more time…

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” — Thomas Edison

45. All you’ve got…

“Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” — William James

46. Never gives up…

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” — Babe Ruth

What are Your Favorite Writing Quotes?

These are some of the best motivational quotes on writing the world has to offer, and yet we’ve merely scratched the surface — there are thousands upon thousands of great, inspirational quotes about writing.

So, I want to hear from you:

Which writing quote is your favorite?

Let me know in the comments below.

The post 133 Writing Quotes to Motivate, Inspire, & Kick Your Butt in 2020 appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from SEO and SM Tips https://smartblogger.com/writing-quotes/

[davidastbury]

May 2019

At School …...aged 14

He submitted a charcoal and pencil drawing for consideration and was called to see the head of art. She asked him what he thought of his drawing. He didn’t know how to answer - he replied that there was something about it that he liked and some things that he didn’t.

She said - ‘I want you to consider this and I want you to remember it all your life. There are things that you can do that even Picasso cannot do. Every so often you will produce a work that is so truthful, so eloquent, so perfect that it could never be matched by any other artist. No one else could do that picture. You may never have the range of a master or the vision or the humanity but you have the potential for your voice to come through, to join the sublime chorus of great artists. Whenever you reach this level you must tell yourself that your work is good enough to hang in the Rijksmuseum - next to the Rembrandts!’

The Offering of the First Fruits of the Year

‘Those who were close would bring figs and grapes and the far ones would bring dried figs and raisins. A bull would go before them and its horns would be plated with gold and it would have a olive wreath around its head. The flute would play before them until they got close to Jerusalem. Once they got close to Jerusalem, they would send ahead of them [a messenger] and adorned their Bikkurim. The overseers and the officers and the treasurers would go out to greet them; in accordance with the stature of those coming in. All the artisans of Jerusalem would stand before them and greet them, "Our brothers from so-and-so, come in peace!”

The flute would continue playing before them until they arrived at the Temple Mount. Once they arrived at the Temple Mount, even Agripas the King would carry his basket on his shoulder until he reached the courtyard.’

(Mishnah Bikkurim 3: 3-4 )

Oy !

The mother went crazy when she discovered that her daughter was seeing a non-Jewish boy. At first the girl tried to sell the idea that it was just a normal date, but it soon became clear that there was more to it. The parents were shocked and appalled.

When the girl told her boyfriend about all this he telephoned the father; suggesting that they meet up, man to man so to speak, and try to find a way forward. The father shouted abuse and made threats. That was that.

A bit later the girl’s elder sister came up from London. She was hoping to mediate a solution. The father informed the family that he had briefly explained the situation to his daughter’s employer (she had worked at the same place as her boyfriend) and she no longer had a job there - instead she would work with him. The elder sister stayed on at the house because her marriage was troubled, but she didn’t mention it at the time, not wishing to add to her parents worries.

The girl and the boy continued to see each other. Several of their friends were supportive - even giving them use of their homes so that they could be together alone. Meanwhile the father became incandescent with anger and he told his daughter - with the mother wringing her hands in the background - that if she didn’t end the affair she would be considered dead by the family and the community. This was the threat of following the ritual of ‘sitting shiva’ - a practice during the first days of mourning for a close relative. The girl would be dead to them.

Later the mother told her that she had been diagnosed with cancer - not sure which type - and that she was going in for a big op. She pushed the girl back and told her that she was to blame for the illness.

It was all too much for the girl. The relationship ended.

The elder sister got divorced.

The mother’s operation was a success.

The father went bankrupt but he appeared not to mind. He had been secretly ‘seeing’ another woman and used the euphoria of his wife’s recovery to ease out the bad news.

They divorced.

The girl eventually took up with a nice boy she had known all her life (she was nineteen). He was a dentist already; they married.

The boyfriend took it all in his stride.

Twenty years later he converted to Judaism.

The Last View

That last view - the last time they saw each other was when she was on her train and he stood alone on the platform. He didn’t know he would never see her again - nor did he know that he would never stop seeing her. So ... she remained in his mind, as important and influential and vital as the people in his life.

He planned to do paintings of her, but never did. Oil on canvas seemed barbaric; watercolours too difficult to control - he wanted her so badly - he wanted to paint her breath misting the glass of the carriage window.

In Memory of Les M.

Les was one of my first bosses and he took a kindly interest in me. If business was slow we would sit and talk and he would offer me cigarettes and the benefit of his accumulated wisdom.

‘Whatever you do cock, don’t get married.’ He often said.

I once pointed out that he himself was committed to marrying his girlfriend Margaret.

‘That’s different’ he explained. ‘I am getting married because I am old and losing my looks. I’ll be thirty-one next; women my age are all taken and young girls won’t consider me. But you’re only eighteen. You should have years and years of fun ahead of you. You mustn’t get serious with anyone - never make promises.’

I nodded and studied his face - he really did look troubled.

‘So, whatever you do cock, don’t get married.’

A few years after this, when I hadn’t seen Les for a long time, someone told me that he had died. Apparently, one night he slipped on an icy pavement and bumped his head. He wasn’t found until morning.

I was told exactly where it happened. If I pass that spot I stand still and listen carefully. The voice of Les comes through the ether - ‘Whatever you do cock, don’t die.’

Attingham Hall - with Sir George Trevelyan.

Arrived drenched and dripping - squelching across the marble floor.

Sir George offered his hand. ‘Jolly damp out there, what!

Did it take you long to get here?’

Me: - ‘Yes. No public transport on Sundays.’

Sir George: ‘What fun, seems to rain a lot, it’s the hills.’

We have an orchestra - short of violinists. You are a violinist I presume?’

Me; ‘No.’

Later in the pub.

Drying out nicely. Total stranger comes across and asks - ‘Are you a violinist?’

An Englishman Abroad

William Somerset Maugham never stopped travelling. In the last weeks of 1953, when he was eighty years old, he visited London, Paris, Vienna, Madrid, Zurich, Venice and Abano. This pace never eased off - almost up to his death at the age of ninety-one.

The stories are endless. He was once a passenger on a ship when a terrible storm kicked off. Everyone was desperate with anxiety; the ship was tilting from side to side, furniture sliding about, passengers holding on tightly.

A man confronted Maugham, knowing that he had trained as a doctor, and asked him what was the best thing to do if the boat tips and you end up in the water.

Maugham was smoking a cigar. He looked at the man keenly and replied - ‘My advice is to try not to struggle - try not to panic - just get yourself a good lungful of seawater and you’ll be surprised at how easy it all is.’

Going through the shelves I found an edition of the Psalms of David. Linear version running word by word, side by side in English and the original Hebrew.

Prefaced by a remarkable statement to be read aloud before recitation:-

“ ... May we not depart from this world before our allotted time, until we have (at least) lived our three score and ten years, so that we may repair that which we have damaged, and put right that which we have done wrong ...“

Happy Times

There was a time when she would hint about things she wanted; hints that could have been missed or not noticed. Or we might pick up the hint and respond - show approval, even a little enthusiasm - and she would quickly play it down and pretend that she didn’t mean anything; that we were mistaken. And then hint again; this time creating the illusion that she was picking up the idea from us - that it had never occurred to her - and how much, now that it had been mentioned, she really wanted it.

And so it went on ... it was a lovely game and we were all happy. Sometimes it was very minor, other times obscure or expensive - whatever it was we would get it - come hell, come high water, we would get it.

A Child With Special Needs

What things should a parent do when seeing prodigious craft ability in his/her child?

I think first of all caution.

The child should not be encouraged.

The child should not be praised - most of his work will be rubbish, and he will know that it’s rubbish. Praising rubbish is bad for him.

He should not be told that he is special - he will find his own way of discovery.

Be careful in choosing your own friends. People who come to your house should be quietly spoken and sincere - most of all they should be good people, modest, thoughtful, principled. Avoid glib chatterboxes - those who have an answer for everything - those who dress vulgarly. Most of all avoid journalists.

If the parent is an artist he should give it up - if he cannot, he should work in private and never let the child see his efforts.

The master tutoring him (and it must be a master - a mediocre teacher might ruin everything) should discourage painting for as long as possible, colour is seductive, it can mislead - (a good analogy is the thought of a talented young guitarist picking up an electric guitar!)

It is better if the child avoids a conventional education - for obvious reasons.

It is better if the child does not read, although no fuss must be made - reading will come later.

The child should never be threatened - it will reinforce his instinctive suspicion that you are crude.

Respect his privacy. Greatness should be given space in every sense.

Respect most of all the validity of his vision - it will not be the same as yours. His reality is totally his and he will only allow you glimpses - but what glimpses!

Love him.

Saw a youngster playing what appeared to be war games on a small IPad - it was something violent because the screen flashed whenever he made a hit. It was impressive in a way - he unquestionably had astonishing reflexes and motor skills (that might not be the right word). And perhaps there is a positive psychological aspect - in his imagination he may have been saving the world from a hostile invasion.

There isn’t much difference from how I was at his age. I fantasied about saving this country from our usual European enemy - sitting up late at night, in my lonely room, just a single naked lightbulb, crouched over a table, my wrist working furiously - tapping out crucial information on my Morse code key.

I suppose memorising the Morse code is more challenging, but there are similarities.

Favourite cafe. Chairs and tables spread out over the pavement. Watching the flow of people. Nothing of great interest for a while but I don’t mind. I enjoy watching. In a way it’s like fishing, you just wait - and watch.

Nice young couple - the boy particularly, he has the luminous shine of someone who is loved - and has been loved all his life. You can spot people like him quite easily - you can see that they were ‘wanted’ and treasured right from birth. They have a glow, an atmosphere about them; they are often, but not always, very charming people. This boy has it - and then some more. I can imagine that earlier today his mother might have immaculately ironed a shirt for him - but he didn’t want to wear it, and instead chose a crumpled T-shirt, and she just smiled and hung it up carefully. I can imagine the characteristic unspoken irritation on his father’s face and the difficulty he has in finding the right tone - the right voice when speaking to his son. But they get along okay, or as well as you could expect.

His girlfriend appears to be very taken by him. She looks up - all her attention is on her glorious boyfriend, not the hundreds of people swamping the pavement. We all get in the way - preventing her doing what she wants to do - preventing her pulling his head down and showing him that she can do things that no other girlfriend has ever done.

Russell and Caroline and Me ... (1959)

A very rare memory - the three of us walking together; Russell in the middle. He was crowing with laughter and swaying about, losing his balance, pushing us with his shoulders. Caroline was laughing too; she linked arms with him and Russell linked arms with me.

We walked up the road. It was around the time that school finished for the big summer break - it might have been the last day. Caroline was dazzling; I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

We passed the ten bedroom mansion commissioned by a market stall-holder who had won a fortune on the football pools. We passed the small park where men used to linger around the gents lavatory. We passed the mock Tudor hotel where the landlord owned a noisy Morgan sports car.

I didn’t want that walk to end - even during the walking I didn’t want it to end - and in a way, given the right mood and circumstances, it never has.

Bill C.

Bill was a grumpy old sod and it was an effort visiting him. Most of the time he sat, wearing a cap, in front of his TV, muttering angrily at everyone and everything.

Later, when it was no longer needed I returned his key; leaving it with a note on the kitchen table, where his family or an estate-agent might collect it. Most of his stuff had been cleared, anything of value had gone. There were a few items of cutlery with yellowed handles in a drawer, and some chipped teacups. There was also an old biscuit tin with a picture of the Queen on the lid; it contained an assortment of family snap-shots; black and white photos of people on holiday, at weddings etc. Perhaps his family had missed it - or perhaps they weren’t interested.

Bill had been ‘on his own’ for quite a while; he didn’t want me or anyone else visiting him - he just wanted to sit in front of his TV, wearing a cap and mutter angrily at everything he saw. After fifty years I am beginning to understand.

He had done his best - served in the war, worked all his life, survived the passing of his wife, the only person who mattered to him - and was simply waiting for his turn to come.

[iuniverseblog]

Antwyn Price discusses his latest work, “Colonies in Ruins”

Antwyn Price tells us about Colonies in Ruins, the second book in his “Ruins” trilogy.

  Although many fictional tales are included, my book, Colonies in Ruins is basically a history of Southeast Asia during the decade preceding and the one following World War Two.

Before the war erupted, well-entrenched colonies in the Pacific region generated fabulous wealth from mining and agriculture for their British, French, Dutch, and American masters.

Colonial life came to an end on 7 December 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  After the war, the colonies were replaced by new sovereign nation-states—the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore.  Some of these were more successful than others.

    A TRILOGY OF “RUINS”

Sounds like a pretty dismal topic for historical novels, but think about it:

Paradise in Ruins (2016) is set during World War Two in the Pacific, 1941-45.  It is about the war’s impact upon the civilians of the region, including the islanders who lost their paradise.

Colonies in Ruins (2018) covers the prewar colonial period and the postwar emergence of new nation-states, focusing on the downfall of European and American colonizers and the emergence of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Cultures in Ruins (a work in progress for 2020) covers the Iberian invasions of the Americas and Southeast Asia, as Portuguese navigators and Spanish conquistadors discover new sources of wealth and power in both regions and overwhelm the native populations in their path.  The timespan is roughly 1500 to 1900.

  MYSELF AS AN AUTHOR

I grew up in the Asia-Pacific region before coming to Texas during high school.  After University and the Marines, I was fortunate to live and work in two great cities in the US (Boston and Los Angeles), Latin America (Mexico City and San Juan, Puerto Rico), the Far East (Taipei and Singapore), and Europe (Brussels and London).  Before writing commercially, I spent several years crafting memoirs for our children about the places they had grown up, which developed the necessary momentum and discipline to create stories based on my love of history and geography.

    MY GENRE (historical novels)

I was greatly influenced in my youth by Somerset Maugham and the early works of James Mitchener, which is to say international adventures in unusual settings.  My stories are not action-packed fast-paced dramas, however, but reflect a real-world balance between excitement and tedium, danger and comfort, the mysterious and the familiar.  I guess that’s because my life was always like that.

  A MESSAGE FOR MY READERS

My one message is probably this: “Go see the world and you will surely find your share of excitement and adventure.”

[A corollary is this well-known Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”]

  THE NEXT BOOK

The new work, Cultures in Ruins, is the final part of a trilogy.  Almost every English-speaker knows that the Portuguese and Spanish colonized what is now called Latin America, but not so many know the fascinating details.  Fewer still know about their Pacific Colonies and the inter-connection between the two regions – for example Acapulco and Manila.

  MARKETING

Colonies in Ruins is scheduled for the 2018 Miami Book Fair.

  FAVORITE PUBLISHING EXPERIENCE WITH IUNIVERSE

I like the talented illustrators that the company has available.

  FOR ASPIRING AUTHORS

Practice writing short articles for a while, then gradually longer ones until you are certain you can tackle 250-400 words without giving up.  Get feedback from friends and colleagues where possible.

  Make sure to check out the iUniverse site for more advice and blogs, as well as iUniverse Facebook and iUniverse Twitter. For a FREE Publishing Guide, click here!

#iUniverse #iUniverse Blog #iUniverse Publishing

[williamlwolf89]

56 Writing Quotes to Motivate, Inspire, & Kick Your Butt in 2020

I love writing quotes.

A good quote can uplift you. It can encourage you when you feel like giving up. It can inspire you when you need a tiny lil’ spark to start writing.

In this simple, easy-to-read resource, I’ve compiled a list of positive quotes about writing, written by some of the world’s greatest literary minds, both past and present:

17 Inspirational Writing Quotes

24 Quotes About Writing

15 Writing Quotes of Encouragement

Let’s jump in.

17 Inspirational Writing Quotes (Or, Quotes to Kick You in the Rear)

1. You fail only if…

“You fail only if you stop writing.” (Click to Tweet) — Ray Bradbury

2. Type a little faster…

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.” (Click to Tweet) — Isaac Asimov

3. Do it for joy…

“I’ve written because it fulfilled me. Maybe it paid off the mortgage on the house and got the kids through college, but those things were on the side — I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever.” (Click to Tweet) — Stephen King

4. You must write it…

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” (Click to Tweet) — Toni Morrison

5. Taste life…

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” (Click to Tweet) — Anaïs Nin

6. Don’t water it down…

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; (and) don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” (Click to Tweet) — Franz Kafka

7. Write every day of your life…

“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” (Click to Tweet) — Ray Bradbury

8. Write something worth reading…

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” (Click to Tweet) — Benjamin Franklin

9. Cut it to the bone…

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.” (Click to Tweet) — Stephen King

10. Everything in life is writable…

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” (Click to Tweet) — Sylvia Plath

11. How vain is it…

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” (Click to Tweet) — Henry David Thoreau

12. What is written without effort…

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” (Click to Tweet) — Samuel Johnson

13. Change more lives…

“90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head.” (Click to Tweet) — Jon Acuff

14. Don’t quit…

“You can’t fail if you don’t quit. You can’t succeed if you don’t start.” (Click to Tweet) — Michael Hyatt

15. That’s how you create art…

“Write something that’s worth fighting over. Because that’s how you change things. That’s how you create art.” (Click to Tweet) — Jeff Goins

16. Determination never does…

“Inspiration may sometimes fail to show up for work in the morning, but determination never does.” (Click to Tweet) — K.M. Weiland

17. No such thing as writer’s block…

“There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.” (Click to Tweet) — Terry Pratchett

Back to Top

24 Quotes About Writing (Or, Writers on Writing)

1. No greater agony…

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” (Click to Tweet) — Maya Angelou

2. Every secret of a writer’s soul…

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” (Click to Tweet) — Virginia Woolf

3. Show me the glint of light…

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” (Click to Tweet) — Anton Chekhov

4. Surprise…

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” — Robert Frost

5. The first draft…

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” — Terry Pratchett

6. One of the exquisite pleasures of writing…

“I would write a book, or a short story, at least three times — once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say. Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one’s fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.” — Bernard Malamud

7. The difference between…

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” (Click to Tweet) — Mark Twain

8. The whooshing sound…

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” (Click to Tweet) — Douglas Adams

9. Write as clearly as I can…

“The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.” — E.B. White

10. Words can be like x-rays…

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” — Aldous Huxley

11. Do not use semicolons…

“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. (…) All they do is show you’ve been to college.” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

12. Find the right words…

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” — Jack Kerouac

13. When I sit down to write…

“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.” — George Orwell

14. Only a great man can write it…

“Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.” — Oscar Wilde

15. Leave out the parts…

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” — Elmore Leonard

16. Have something to say…

“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

17. My courage is reborn…

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” — Anne Frank

18. A person is a fool to become a writer…

“A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.” (Click to Tweet) — Roald Dahl

19. No one knows…

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” — Somerset Maugham

20. To discover…

“I write to discover what I know.” — Flannery O’Connor

21. Wants to be written…

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” — Madeleine L’Engle

22. Writing is easy…

“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” (Click to Tweet) — Gene Fowler

23. Never have to change…

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” — Saul Bellow

24. Surviving the rollercoaster…

“Being a writer is not just about typing. It’s also about surviving the rollercoaster of the creative journey.” (Click to Tweet) — Joanna Penn

Back to Top

15 Writing Quotes of Encouragement

1. Waited for perfection…

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” (Click to Tweet) — Margaret Atwood

2. A thousand story ideas…

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” (Click to Tweet) — Orson Scott Card

3. Start writing…

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” (Click to Tweet) — Louis L’Amour

4. A writer needs three things…

“A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.” — William Faulkner

5. Didn’t quit…

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” — Richard Bach

6. One true sentence…

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” — Ernest Hemingway

7. Part of the learning process…

“You have to resign yourself to wasting lots of trees before you write anything really good. That’s just how it is. It’s like learning an instrument. You’ve got to be prepared for hitting wrong notes occasionally, or quite a lot. That’s just part of the learning process.” (Click to Tweet) — J.K. Rowling

8. Road to achievement…

“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” — C. S. Lewis

9. Writing is more difficult…

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” — Thomas Mann

10. Tell it as best you can…

“(…) write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.” (Click to Tweet) — Neil Gaiman

11. What you have to say…

“Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” — Barbara Kingsolver

12. Pouring yourself into your work…

“When you are pouring yourself into your work and bringing your unique perspective and skills to the table, then you are adding value that only you are capable of contributing.” (Click to Tweet) — Todd Henry

13. Like driving a car at night…

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” — E. L. Doctorow

14. Be brave…

“We were born to be brave.” (Click to Tweet) — Bob Goff

15. Start somewhere…

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” (Click to Tweet) — Anne Lamott

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What are Your Favorite Writing Quotes?

There are thousands upon thousands of inspirational quotes about writing.

What’s your favorite?

Let us know in the comments below.

About the Author: When he’s not busy telling waitresses, baristas, and anyone else who crosses his path that Jon Morrow once said he was in the top 1% of bloggers, Kevin J. Duncan is Smart Blogger’s Editor in Chief.

The post 56 Writing Quotes to Motivate, Inspire, & Kick Your Butt in 2020 appeared first on Smart Blogger.

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