Some Quotes for March 2023 (#11)
Barthelme, Sontag, Saunders, Shakespeare, Donne, Sappho, Lucius, Stella Adler, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Emily Oster, Jianzhi Sengcan, Janet Frame, Dean Young, Matthew Klam, G. K. Chesterton
Link = source I've actually read/endorse. No link = random, out-of-context snippet I was able to track down on the internet. (Some of these are advice—others I just enjoy the language or sentiment.)
If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between “for” and “against” is the mind's worst disease -Jianzhi Sengcan
From “Daumier”: The self cannot be escaped, but it can be, with ingenuity and hard work, distracted. -Donald Barthelme
From “You Are Now Entering the Human Heart”: There’s really no need to be brave. It’s not a question of bravery. The snake is absolutely harmless. Where’s the bravery when the snake is harmless? -Janet Frame
There is no secret option C. -Emily Oster
[T]he internal truth is almost indescribable. We have to speak of something of which it is the whole point that people do not speak of it; we have not merely to translate from a strange tongue or speech, but from a strange silence. -G. K. Chesterton
The writer must be four people: 1) the nut, the obsédé; 2) the moron; 3) the stylist; 4) the critic.
1 supplies the material; 2 lets it come out…A great writer has all 4 but you can still be a good writer with only 1 and 2; they’re most important.
-Susan Sontag
Your talent is in your choice. -Stella Adler
From Macbeth: If you can look into the seeds of time, / And say which grain will grow and which will not, / Speak then to me who neither beg nor fear / Your favours nor your hate. -William Shakespeare
The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you. -Neil deGrasse Tyson
From “The Other Party”: I looked into the highest parts and had that sensation where your soul soars up, everything resets, and you feel oneness. This city had started as a campfire. None of us would be here when it ended. -Matthew Klam
You have to sweep the temple steps a lot before the god appears. - Dean Young
All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. -John Donne
From “Dusty Trails”: It's all a manual that we've been writing, a future instructional guide. / If we skipped ahead to our prefulfilled dreams, we'd be lost without our own advice. -Lucius
From “My Chivalric Fiasco”: One last bit of Pill got digested by me, seemed like. Producing one last brief but powerful surge of Return. To that former Self. Who, Elevated & Confident to a Fault, had so led me astray. -George Saunders
What cannot be said will be wept. -Sappho