#setting

In the detective story, as in its mirror image, the Quest for the Grail, maps (the ritual of space) and timetables (the ritual of time) are desirable. Nature should reflect its human inhabitants, i.e., it should be the Great Good Place; for the more Eden-like it is, the greater the contradiction of murder. The country is preferable to the town, a well-to-do neighborhood (but not too well-to-do-or there will be a suspicion of ill-gotten gains) better than a slum. The corpse must shock not only because it is a corpse but also because, even for a corpse, it is shockingly out of place, as when a dog makes a mess on a drawing room carpet." (The guilty vicarage: Notes on the detective story, by an addict, Harper's Magazine, May 1948) ↗

— W.H. Auden

#detective-stories #mysteries #setting #writing #nature

When you wake up, think about winning the day. Don't worry about a week or a month from now -- just think about one day at a time. If you are worried about the mountain in the distance, you might trip over the molehill right in front of you. Win the day! ↗

— Drew Brees

#adversity

To fans in a festival setting it's like a picnic. You want to have a good time with your friends in that crowd. And in the background you hear the band play, 'Oh, that's my favorite song!' everyone is there to enjoy the afternoon and that's about it. ↗

— Tom Araya

#afternoon #background #band #crowd #enjoy

A sign that a peace association is going adrift is its exclusion of other political parties, with whom it could collaborate effectively on most of the problems besetting the cause of peace. ↗

— Fredrik Bajer

#association #besetting #cause #collaborate #could

Life has a way of setting things in order and leaving them be. Very tidy, is life. ↗

— Jean Anouilh

#life #order #setting #them #things

But human beings fall easily into despair, and from the very beginning we invented stories that enabled us to place our lives in a larger setting, that revealed an underlying pattern, and gave us a sense that, against all the depressing and chaotic evidence to the contrary, life had meaning and value. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#beginning #beings #chaotic #contrary #depressing

A single prop that does not look real to an audience can louse you up. The same is true of the smallest flaw in setting up the motivation in a story line. ↗

— Desi Arnaz

#does #flaw #line #look #louse

I'm going to take over on the Techno Comics so I'm going to be dealing in the children's merchandising type department. But that's just setting it up and having somebody run it. ↗

— Majel Barrett

#comics #dealing #department #going #having

I've always leaned toward a feminine, funky style, even in business settings. I used to paint my nails blue in 1993, before it was mainstream. ↗

— Sara Blakely

#before #blue #business #even #feminine

You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions. ↗

— Gary Ryan Blair

#against #available #balancing #cannot #conditions