Writing: Create a Context
The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.
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Rodney Dangerfield
ByHeatherI told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous – everyone hasn’t met me yet.
— Rodney Dangerfield
Steinbeck on Writing
ByHeatherI think there is only one book to a man. It is true that a man may change or be so warped that he becomes another man and has another book but I do not think that it is so with me.
— John Steinbeck, Journals of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters
East of Eden was the first book that I read by Steinbeck. It was moving and well written and rich with characters. Then I discovered Journals of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters and suddenly I felt I had been given a back stage pass to the mind of a writer.
Steinbeck had already written Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939) when he set out to write East of Eden (1951). In the intervening years he lived through two divorces and served as a war correspondent. Despite the critical success of his earlier works, his standing as a major novelist had faded. As today’s quote reveals, Steinbeck also felt that he had not yet told the one story that was within him. His editor, Pascal Covici, did all that he could to encourage Steinbeck. Covici sent Steinbeck a number of notebooks and instructed Steinbeck to use them to write.
Compulsive Quest for Certainty
ByHeatherThe compulsive quest for certainty is not the expression of genuine faith but is rooted in the need to conquer the unbearable doubt.
Practicing What You Preach
ByHeatherI don’t practice what I preach, ’cause I’m not the kind of person I’m preachin’ to.
— J. R. “Bob” Dobbs, founder, Church of the SubGenius