#ok

Ninety-eight per cent of laughter is nothing to do with jokes, which do not deserve to bear the weight of all the funny stuff in the world. ↗

— Arthur Smith

#cent #deserve #funny #funny stuff #jokes

Occasionally I find a travel book that is both illuminating and entertaining, where vivid writing and research replace self-indulgence and sloppy prose. ↗

— Arthur Smith

#both #entertaining #find #i #illuminating

The book may be garbage, but if it weighs in at a kilo or more, I stand before its author in awe. ↗

— Arthur Smith

#awe #before #book #garbage #i

Travel books are, by and large, boring. They lodge uncomfortably between fact, fiction and autobiography. ↗

— Arthur Smith

#between #books #boring #fact #fiction

When I was eight or nine, I wrote a new version of 'Peter Pan' for the school play. They didn't use it - I imagine it was unperformable - but as recompense for not doing my script, I was offered any role, and instinctively went for Captain Hook. I came on trying to be terrifying, but everyone laughed at me. ↗

— Arthur Smith

#came #captain #doing #eight #everyone

Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first time or the last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory. ↗

— Betty Smith

#everything #filled #first #first time #glory

Hugh Wilson made it so real and he took us and it was almost when he was directing it, the way he would do it was funnier than the way we did it. And I just developed a regard for him that was unbelievable. ↗

— Bubba Smith

#developed #did #directing #funnier #him

I don't go to clubs and stuff like that, so I don't have to put up with it in there. And normally, because obviously I could hurt somebody, and if I look at it that way, I have to back off. ↗

— Bubba Smith

#because #clubs #could #go #hurt

I took a private lesson, but it didn't really work out, so I went back to playing along with records. That's really the thing that got me into playing a lot - getting excited about playing along with my favorite bands like Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. ↗

— Chad Smith

#along #back #bands #black #black sabbath

The Booker thing was a catalyst for me in a bizarre way. It’s perceived as an accolade to be published as a ‘literary’ writer, but, actually, it’s pompous and it’s fake. Literary fiction is often nothing more than a genre in itself. I’d always read omnivorously and often thought much literary fiction is read by young men and women in their 20s, as substitutes for experience. ↗

— Neil Cross

#literary-fiction #literature #writers #writing #experience