Mark Twain: “When you catch an adjective, kill it.”

28 Jun

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“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.”

~ MARK TWAIN

http://pinterest.com/pin/39406565462379120/

When I was a vegetarian…

28 Jun

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Jayne Mansfield: cheetah huntah

27 Jun

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Jayne Mansfield, cheetah huntah

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Geoff Dyer: “Don’t write in public places.”

27 Jun

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“Don’t write in public places. In the early 1990s I went to live in Paris. The usual writerly reasons: back then, if you were caught writing in a pub in England, you could get your head kicked in, whereas in Paris, dans les cafés…  Since then I’ve developed an aversion to writing in public. I now think it should be done only in private, like any other lavatorial activity.”

~ GEOFF DYER

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Helen Keller (June 27): “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”

27 Jun

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“It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”

~ Helen Keller, b. 27 June 1880

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Time flies like an arrow…

27 Jun

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See more original eCards at http://pinterest.com/alanannand/ecards/ 

 

Norman Mailer: “Style is character.”

26 Jun

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“A really good style comes only when a man has become as good as he can be. Style is character. A good style cannot come from a bad, undisciplined character… I think good style is a matter of rendering out of oneself all the cupidities, all the cripplings, all the vague desires. And then I think one has to develop one’s physical grace.”

~ NORMAN MAILER

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Pearl S. Buck (June 26): “If our American way of life fails the child…”

26 Jun

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“If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all.”

~ Pearl S. Buck, b. 26 June 1892

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Virginity like bubble…

26 Jun

virgin_prick

Ancient Asian wisdom

f scott fitzgerald: writers aren’t people

25 Jun

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“Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. It’s like actors, who try so pathetically not to look in mirrors. Who lean backward trying – only to see their faces in the reflecting chandeliers.”

~ F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

 http://pinterest.com/pin/39406565462362883/