, 04 2013 . 18:26
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verbava (
free_readings)
Science Fiction Quotations: From the Inner Mind to the Outer Limits.
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Heretics are the only (bitter) remedy against the entropy of human thought.
Yevgeny Zamiatin, On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters (1923)
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It is possible that many religions are moderately true.
James Hilton, Lost Horizon (1933)
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The trouble with being a priest was that you eventually had to take the advice you gave to others.
Walter M. Miller, Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959)
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Man is so built that he cannot imagine his own death. This leads to endless invention of religions. While this conviction by no means proves immortality to be a fact, questions generated by it are overwhelmingly important. The nature of life, how ego hooks into the body, the problem of ego itself and why each ego seems to be the center of the universe, the purpose of life, the purpose of the universethese are paramount questions, Ben; they can never be trivial. Science hasnt solved themand who am I to sneer at religions for trying, no matter how unconvincingly to me?
Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
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Religion is but the most ancient and honorable way in which men have striven to make sense out of God's universe. Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of Religion to fit man into this lawfulness.
Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)
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free_readings
, 29 2012 . 18:46
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verbava (free_readings)
, Farrar, Straus and Giroux As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980.
brainpickings
I have a wider range as a human being than as a writer. (With some writers, its the opposite.) Only a fraction of me is available to be turned into art.
(8/8/64)
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Writing is a little door. Some fantasies, like big pieces of furniture, wont come through.
(8/30/64)
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I think I am ready to learn how to write. Think with words, not with ideas.
(3/5/70)
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A writer, like an athlete, must train every day. What did I do today to keep in form?
(7/5/72)
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In life, I dont want to be reduced to my work. In work, I dont want to be reduced to my life.
(3/15/73)
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free_readings
, 23 2012 . 16:57
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verbava (free_readings)
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Brainpickings, .
Alfred Hitchcock:
A clear horizon nothing to worry about on your plate, only things that are creative and not destructive I cant bear quarreling, I cant bear feelings between people I think hatred is wasted energy, and its all non-productive. Im very sensitive a sharp word, said by a person, say, who has a temper, if theyre close for me, hurts me for days. I know were only human, we do go in for these various emotions, call them negative emotions, but when all these are removed and you can look forward and the road is clear ahead, and now youre going to create something I think thats as happy as Ill ever want to be.
Nora Ephron:
I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the worlds greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.
Sylvia Plath:
I love people. Everybody. I love them, I think, as a stamp collector loves his collection. Every story, every incident, every bit of conversation is raw material for me. My loves not impersonal yet not wholly subjective either. I would like to be everyone, a cripple, a dying man, a whore, and then come back to write about my thoughts, my emotions, as that person. But I am not omniscient. I have to live my life, and it is the only one Ill ever have. And you cannot regard your own life with objective curiosity all the time
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free_readings
, 21 2012 . 13:56
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verbava (free_readings)
Advice to Writers: A Compendium of Quotes, Anecdotes, and Writerly Wisdom from a Dazzling Array of Literary Lights.
brainpickings.
Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Begin with an individual and you find that you have created a type; begin with a type and you find that you have created nothing. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
Dont ever write a novel unless it hurts like a hot turd coming out. ~ Charles Bukowski
Breathe in experience, breathe out poetry. ~ Muriel Rukeyser
A short story must have single mood and every sentence must build towards it. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write. ~ Saul Bellow
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. ~ T. S. Eliot
Fiction is a lie, and good fiction is the truth inside the lie. ~ Stephen King
Good fiction is made of what is real, and reality is difficult to come by. ~ Ralph Ellison
The problem with fiction, it has to be plausible. Thats not true with non-fiction. ~ Tom Wolfe
You cannot write well without data. ~ George Higgins
Listen, then make up your own mind. ~ Gay Talese
Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Write without pay until somebody offers pay; if nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for. ~ Mark Twain
free_readings
, 10 2011 . 12:40
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verbava (free_readings)
Science Fiction Quotations: From the Inner Mind to the Outer Limits
There are times in life when the most comfortable thing is to do nothing at all. Things happen to you and you just let them happen.
James Hilton, Lost Horizon (1933)
Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
He knows his leaders are not corrupted by intellectual paralysis.
Whats that mean? Syd asked dryly.
It means they act first and think second.
Philip K. Dick, The World Jones Made (1956)
Once human beings realize something can be done, theyre not satisfied until theyve done it.
Frank Herbert, Cease Fire (1958)
Orr had a tendency to assume that people knew what they were doing, perhaps because he generally assumed that he did not.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven (1971)
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free_readings
verbava (
free_readings)
via realdiary .
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I always read the last page of a book first so that if I die before I finish I'll know how it turned out.
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I have a wider range as a human being than as a writer. (With some writers, its the opposite.) Only a fraction of me is available to be turned into art.
I always read the last page of a book first so that if I die before I finish I'll know how it turned out.
Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
