Chelsea Handler (b. February 25): “I didn’t become a comedian to work this hard.”

25 Feb

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“I didn’t become a comedian to work this hard.”

~ Chelsea Handler, b. 25 February 1975

 

George Harrison (b. February 25): “You’ve got as many lives as you like…”

25 Feb

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“You’ve got as many lives as you like, and more, even ones you don’t want.”  

~ George Harrison, b. 25 February 1943

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Peter Fonda (b. February 23): “I don’t trust anybody who didn’t inhale.”

23 Feb
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“I don’t trust anybody who didn’t inhale.”

~ Peter Fonda, b. 23 February 1940

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Johnny Winter (b. February 23): “People need the blues.”

23 Feb

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“I think the blues will always be around. People need it.”

~ Johnny Winter, b. 23 February 1944

 

Richard North Patterson (b. February 22): “There’s a wonderful freedom to being a novelist.”

22 Feb

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Richard North Patterson, born 22 February 1947, is an American best-selling fiction writer of 22 novels. Before he wrote full time, he studied creative writing at the University of Alabama. He was also a lawyer. He served as Ohio’s Assistant Attorney General, a Watergate prosecutor, and as an attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission. His first novel, The Lasko Tangent, won an Edgar Allen Poe Award in 1979.

10 quotes on writing:

  1. The business of writing is empathizing with situations that aren’t your own.
  2. Writing seems like the only job where what you think and feel really matters.
  3. I was 29 when I wrote my first novel. But I was 45 when I quit for good. I was a 16-year overnight success.
  4. There is a wonderful freedom to being a novelist – it’s self-assigned work. For someone who’s curious by nature, it’s a perfect job.
  5. The manuscript you submit [should not] contain any flaws that you can identify – it is up to the writer to do the work, rather than counting on some stranger in Manhattan to do it for him.
  6. Writing is re-writing. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with the first draft where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospect of never publishing.
  7. Trial lawyers have to be story tellers. They have to arrange complex facts in attractive narratives; grasp character; understand judges, juries, make clients appealing, understandable. They do have a lot of stories to tell – vivid and interesting things to talk about.
  8. Write what you care about and understand. Writers should never try to outguess the marketplace in search of a saleable idea; the simple truth is that all good books will eventually find a publisher if the writer tries hard enough, and a central secret to writing a good book is to write one that people like you will enjoy.
  9. Monday through Friday, I get up at five, read The New York Times and begin writing by seven. I work with an outline of the chapter or scenes from each day and typically finish with original writing by noon. Throughout the afternoon my assistant and I work the draft over until it’s as good as it can be. Typically we’re not happy until late afternoon.
  10. The writer must always leave room for the characters to grow and change. If you move your characters from plot point to plot point, like painting by the numbers, they often remain stick figures. They will never take on a life of their own. The most exciting thing is when you find a character doing something surprising or unplanned. Like a character saying to me: “Hey, Richard, you may think I work for you, but I don’t. I’m my own person.”

 

Luis Bunuel (b. February 22): “I can only wait for the final amnesia…”

22 Feb

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“I can only wait for the final amnesia, the one that can erase an entire life.”  

~ Luis Bunuel, b. 22 February 1900

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Drew Barrymore (b. February 22): “Love is the hardest habit to break.”

22 Feb

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“Love is the hardest habit to break, and the most difficult to satisfy.”

~ Drew Barrymore, b. 22 February 1975

 

Anais Nin (b. February 21): “If you don’t cry out or sing, then don’t write.”

21 Feb

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“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.”

~ Anais Nin, b. 21 February 1903

 

Ansel Adams (b. February 20): “A photograph can hold just as much as we put into it…”

20 Feb

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“We must remember that a photograph can hold just as much as we put into it, and no one has ever approached the full possibilities of the medium.”

~ Ansel Adams, b. 20 February 1902

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Monday I had Friday on my mind…

19 Feb

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Monday I had Friday on my mind…