Scribbling Cynic

"At that moment, a certainty entered. I knew. He had attacked her here. The old ceremonial place had..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:00:51 -0400

“At that moment, a certainty entered. I knew. He had attacked her here. The old ceremonial place had told me—cried out to me in my mother’s anguished voice, I now thought, and tears started into my eyes. I let them flood down my cheeks. Nobody was there to see me so I did not even wipe them away. I stood there in the shadowed doorway thinking with my tears. Yes, tears can be thoughts, why not?”

- The Round House by Louise Erdrich

"I never liked the idea [of ereaders] and most people don’t. They want to have pages...."

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:00:36 -0400

“I never liked the idea [of ereaders] and most people don’t. They want to have pages. We’re like people who bought cars in the 1910s, and they would break down by the side of the road and people would yell, Get a horse! Now people yell, Get a book! It’s the same deal.”

- Stephen King, “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review, Issue 178, 2006

"Interviewer: How do you start writing every day? Peter Carey: It’s like standing on the edge..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:00:48 -0400

“

Interviewer:
How do you start writing every day?

Peter Carey:
It’s like standing on the edge of a cliff. This is especially true of the first draft. Every day you’re making up the earth you’re going to stand on.

”

- “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review, Issue 177, 2006

65 Books You Need to Read in Your Twenties

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:00:26 -0400

65 Books You Need to Read in Your Twenties:

Oh boy, another long list of books I need to read, and this one with a deadline that is hopefully way sooner than the usual ‘before you die’… this is why rereading books is practically immoral.

12/65 down, though!

"Interviewer: Why do you think people ask, Why don’t you write something that we can..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:00:27 -0400

“

Interviewer:
Why do you think people ask, Why don’t you write something that we can understand? Do you threaten them by not writing in the typical Western, linear, chronological way?

Toni Morrison:
I don’t think that they mean that. I think they mean, Are you ever going to write a book about white people? For them perhaps that’s a kind of compliment. They’re saying, You write well enough, I would even let you write about me. They couldn’t say that to anybody else. I mean, could I have gone up to Andre Gide and said, Yes, but when are you going to get serious and start writing about black people? I don’t think he would know how to answer that question. Just as I don’t. He would say, What? I will if I want to, or, Who are you? What is behind that question is, there’s the center, which is white, and then there are these regional blacks or Asians, or any sort of marginal people. That question can only be asked from the center. Bill Moyers asked me that when-are-you-going-to-write-about question on television. I just said, Well, maybe one day… but I couldn’t say to him, you know, you can only ask that question from the center. The center of the world! I mean he’s a white male. He’s asking a marginal person when are you going to get to the center, when are you going to write about white people. I can’t say, Bill, why are you asking me that question? Or, As long as that question seems reasonable is as long as I won’t, can’t. The point is that he’s patronizing; he’s saying, You write well enough; you could come on into the center if you wanted to. You don’t have to stay out there on the margins. And I’m saying, Yeah, well, I’m gonna stay out here on the margins, and let the center look for me.

”

- “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review, Issue 128, 1993

"What’s any artist but the dregs of his work?"

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:00:37 -0400

“What’s any artist but the dregs of his work?”

- William Gaddis, “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review, Issue 105, 1987

"I don’t try to be prophetic, as I don’t sit down to write literature. It is simply this:..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:00:52 -0400

“I don’t try to be prophetic, as I don’t sit down to write literature. It is simply this: a writer has to take all the risks of putting down what he sees. No one can tell him about that. No one can control that reality. It reminds me of something Pablo Picasso was supposed to have said to Gertrude Stein while he was painting her portrait. Gertrude said, I don’t look like that. And Picasso replied, You will. And he was right.”

- James Baldwin, “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review, Issue 91, 1984

"Deep down I think foreign languages irrelevant. If that glass thing over there is a window, then it..."

Sun, 12 May 2013 09:00:43 -0400

“Deep down I think foreign languages irrelevant. If that glass thing over there is a window, then it isn’t a fenster or a fenetre or whatever. Hautes fenetres, my God! A writer can have only one language, if language is going to mean anything to him.”

- Philip Larkin, “The Art of Poetry,” The Paris Review, Issue 84, 1982

Semicolons are sexy

Sat, 11 May 2013 09:00:33 -0400

Semicolons are sexy

"There are different ways of doing things, and each one has a slightly different effect. A..."

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:00:00 -0400

“There are different ways of doing things, and each one has a slightly different effect. A misunderstanding of this leads you to the Bill Gass position: that fiction can’t tell the truth, because every way you say the thing changes it. I don’t think that’s to the point. I think that what fiction does is sneak up on the truth by telling it six different ways and finally releasing it.”

- John Gardner, “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review, Issue 75, 1979

So usually I force myself to pick just one quote to post here when I finish a book, but I’m going to cheat. I just finished The Paris Review Interviews II, which is full of great quotes about reading/writing/literature/life, so I’m going to pick a few quotes from different interviewees. Something to look forward to.

Ender’s Game preview! This might be a weird gut reaction...

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:00:31 -0400

Ender’s Game preview!

This might be a weird gut reaction to what is mostly just a voiceover in the preview, but I don’t know about Harrison Ford in this role…

The New Yorker on Copy-editing

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:00:31 -0400

The New Yorker on Copy-editing:

If I could be a copy editor for The New Yorker… I would stay forever.

People always seem confused by my interest in editing and copy-editing, but I don’t see why. I want writing to have strong characters AND a compelling voice AND clarity AND consistency AND correct grammar AND look pleasing on the page… doesn’t everyone want that? (No, not everyone, I know.) I find it difficult to draw a line and stay on one side of it when it coming to editing.

I love that “smaller than a bread box” is still considered a relevant form of...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:00:25 -0400

I love that “smaller than a bread box” is still considered a relevant form of measurement.

"Just because something doesn’t last your whole life doesn’t mean it’s a..."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:00:39 -0400

““Just because something doesn’t last your whole life doesn’t mean it’s a mistake.” She paused, and the sun through the windshield caught a sparkle in her eye. “‘Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew,’” she said.”

- Gone by Cathi Hanauer

Barbara's Bestsellers closes

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:00:50 -0400

Barbara's Bestsellers closes:

This was always my favorite part of South Station. :(

I love when you start hearing the next track on a CD in your head after a song ends. Life...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:00:50 -0400

I love when you start hearing the next track on a CD in your head after a song ends. Life pre-iPod…

"Bostonians don’t love easy things, they love hard things — blizzards, the bleachers in Fenway Park,..."

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:00:31 -0400

“Bostonians don’t love easy things, they love hard things — blizzards, the bleachers in Fenway Park, a good brawl over a contested parking space.”

- “Messing With the Wrong City” by Dennis Lehane, The New York Times, April 16, 2013

Picked up this copy of The Giver at Free Book Day at work, only...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:00:37 -0400

Picked up this copy of The Giver at Free Book Day at work, only to find that it was signed by Lois Lowry!

"There is a moment when you realize that you and your parent are not the same person, and it usually..."

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 09:00:39 -0400

“There is a moment when you realize that you and your parent are not the same person, and it usually occurs when you are both consumed by a similar emotion.”

- “The Return,” by Hisham Matar, The New Yorker, April 8, 2013

"If only people could travel as easily as words. Wouldn’t that be something? If only we could..."

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:00:48 -0400

“If only people could travel as easily as words. Wouldn’t that be something? If only we could be so easily revised.”

- Z: A novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler