“People like ourselves may see nothing wondrous in writing, but our anthropologists know how strange and magical it appears to a purely oral people - a conversation with no one and yet with everyone. What could be stranger than the silence one encounters when addressing a question to a text? What could be more metaphysically puzzling than addressing an unseen audience, as every writer of books must do? And correcting oneself because one knows that an unknown reader will disapprove or misunderstand?” PeopleKnowsWritingMayBookSilenceAudienceKnow HowStrangeReaderConversationOneselfStrangerEncountersUnseenWondrousCorrectingAnthropologistsPuzzling Book:Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business Source: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“Literature can teach us how to live before we live, and how to die before we die. I believe that writing is practice for death, and for every (other) transformation human beings encounter.” WritingBelieveHumansDiesLiteratureI BelieveHuman BeingsTeachPracticeTransformationEncounters Author:Jayne Anne Phillips
“Both reading and writing are experiences--lifelong-- in the course of which we who encounter words used in certain ways are persuaded by them to be brought mind and heart within the presence, the power, of the imagination.” WayWritingMindHeartUsedCertainCoursesReadingImaginationEncountersHeart And MindLifelongReading And Writing Book:Three papers on fiction Source: Three papers on fiction
“If you are not discouraged about your writing on a regular basis, you may not be trying hard enough. Any challenging pursuit will encounter frequent patches of frustration. Writing is nothing if not challenging.” IfsWritingTryingMayHardEnoughChallengesBasesPursuitEncountersFrustrationDiscouragedPatchesTrying Hard Author:Maxwell Perkins
“Disgrace is a subtle, multi-layered story, as much concerned with politics as it is with the itch of male flesh. Coetzee's prose is chaste and lyrical without being self- conscious: it is a relief to encounter writing as quietly stylish as this. I was not totally convinced by Lurie's musical abilities, with regard to his proposed opera, but that is my sole complaint.” WritingSelfStoriesAbilityConsciousConcernedRegardMalesMusicalConvincedFleshEncountersProseReliefSubtleOperaSoleComplaintsDisgraceSelf ConsciousLyricalChasteStylishMusical AbilityCoetzee Author:Paul Bailey