#books

The other night we talked about literature's elimination of the unessential, so that we are given a concentrated "dose" of life. I said, almost indignantly, "That's the danger of it, it prepares you to live, but at the same time, it exposes you to disappointments because it gives a heightened concept of living, it leaves out the dull or stagnant moments. You, in your books, also have a heightened rhythm, and a sequence of events so packed with excitement that I expected all your life to be delirious, intoxicated." Literature is an exaggeration, a dramatization, and those who are nourished on it (as I was) are in great danger of trying to approximate an impossible rhythm. Trying to live up to Dostoevskian scenes every day. And between writers there is a straining after extravagance. We incite each other to jazz-up our rhythm. ↗

— Anaïs Nin

#writing #life

Pose your questions to people and you will get countless useless answers. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#books #countless #dejan-stojanovic #literature #literature-quotes

We measure everything by ourselves with almost a necessary conceit. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#conceit #dejan-stojanovic #literature #literature-quotes #measure

Even if you are alone you wage war with yourself. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#books #dejan-stojanovic #literature #literature-quotes #philosophy

The deeper thought is, the taller it becomes. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#deep-thoughts #dejan-stojanovic #literature #literature-quotes #philosophy

Either all lights are turned off or one inner light is missing. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #inner #light #lights #literature

There is a moonlight note in the Moonlight Sonata; there is a thunder note in an angry sky. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #literature #literature-quotes #moon #moonlight

[A] finished tale may give a man immortality in the light and literary sense; but an unfinished tale suggests another immortality, more essential and more strange. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#fame #immortality #unfinished-works #writing #literary-criticism

[I]f a book is well written, I always find it too short. ↗

— Jane Austen

#craft #enjoyment #entertainment #writing #writing-craft

In the past few years I've assigned books to be read before a student attends one of my weeklong seminars. I have been astonished by how few people -- people who supposedly want to write -- read books, and if they read them, how little they examine them. ↗

— Natalie Goldberg

#reading #writing #writing-craft