#lit

No matter what a person does to cover up and conceal themselves, when we write and lose control, I can spot a person from Alabama, Florida, South Carolina a mile away even if they make no exact reference to location. Their words are lush like the land they come from, filled with nine aunties, people named Bubba. There is something extravagant and wild about what they have to say — snakes on the roof of a car, swamps, a delta, sweat, the smell of sea, buzz of an air conditioner, Coca-Cola — something fertile, with a hidden danger or shame, thick like the humidity, unspoken yet ever-present. Often when a southerner reads, the members of the class look at each other, and you can hear them thinking, gee, I can't write like that. The power and force of the land is heard in the piece. These southerners know the names of what shrubs hang over what creek, what dogwood flowers bloom what color, what kind of soil is under their feet. I tease the class, "Pay no mind. It's the southern writing gene. The rest of us have to toil away. ↗

— Natalie Goldberg

#southern-literature #southerners #writing #literature-quotes

Will the day tell its secret Before it disappears, Becomes timeless night. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#day #dejan-stojanovic #disappear #disappearance #literature

There is nobody to wake up eternal seekers. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #eternal #literature #literature-quotes #poetry

What you gain here, you lose on the other side. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#gain #literature #literature-quotes #loss #other-side

After Supper the Master dismissed all except Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha the Monk. He took them out with him and said, "Look at that wonderful moolight. It makes me long for the time when I can return home. ↗

— Wu Cheng'en

#monkey #travel #literature-quotes

Since nothing is absolute There is no absolute silence, Only an appearance Of temporary peace. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#appearance #dejan-stojanovic #literature #literature-quotes #peace

To not say all that can be said is the secret of discipline and economy. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#discipline #economy #literature #literature-quotes #poetry

Creating means living. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #literature #literature-quotes #living #poems

In the essence of truth lies deceit. ↗