“Santa Claus is a god. He's no less a god than Ahura Mazda, or Odin, or Zeus. Think of the white beard, the chariot pulled through the air by a breed of animal which doesn't ordinarily fly, the prayers (requests for gifts) which are annually mailed to him and which so baffle the Post Office, the specially-garbed priests in all the department stories. And don't gods reflect their creators' society? The Greeks had a huntress goddess, and gods of agriculture and war and love. What else would we have but a god of giving, of merchandising, and of consumption?” ThinkingGivingWarStoriesPrayerWhiteAnimalAirOfficeAnd LoveCreatorPostsGreekDepartmentPriestsGoddessConsumptionAgricultureSantaRequestBeardSanta ClausZeusChariotsPost OfficeOdinHuntressMerchandising Author:Donald E. Westlake
“In the most basic way, writers are defined not by the stories they tell, or their politics, or their gender, or their race, but by the words they use. Writing begins with language, and it is in that initial choosing, as one sifts through the wayward lushness of our wonderful mongrel English, that choice of vocabulary and grammar and tone, the selection on the palette, that determines who's sitting at that desk. Language creates the writer's attitude toward the particular story he's decided to tell.” WayWritingStoriesUseChoicesLanguageRaceAttitudeWonderfulParticularSittingDecidedDetermineGenderDefinedToneDesksVocabularySelectionGrammarInitialsPalette Book:The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany Source: The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany
“Nothing about it interested me. Or about anything else, except making up stories. If literacy weren't so nearly universal, God knows what I'd be. A drain on the State, I shouldn't wonder.” IfsKnowsStatesStoriesWonderUniversalLiteracyGod KnowsDrainsMaking Up Author:Donald E. Westlake
“The many magazines, ranging from pulp to slick, that used to serve as both farm teams for writers and lures to readers, with hundreds of short stories every month, don't exist. Most of the doors for new people have been sealed.” PeopleHas BeensStoriesUsedDoorsTeamMonthsReaderMagazinesFarmsShort StoryLurePulpSlick Author:Donald E. Westlake
“I start with the story, almost in the old campfire sense, and the story leads to both the characters, which actors should best be cast in this story, and the language. The choice of words, more than anything else, creates the feeling that the story gives off.” GivingShouldCharacterStoriesFeelingsChoicesActorsLanguageCastsCampfire Author:Donald E. Westlake
