#short

A short story is a sprint, a novel is a marathon. Sprinters have seconds to get from here to there and then they are finished. Marathoners have to carefully pace themselves so that they don't run out of energy (or in the case of the novelist-- ideas) because they have so far to run. To mix the metaphor, writing a short story is like having a short intense affair, whereas writing a novel is like a long rich marriage. ↗

— Jonathan Carroll

#novels #short-fiction #short-stories #writing #writing-process

Short first pregnancies do not occasion criticism in our valley, for it is widely known that the good Lord often makes first pregnancies mercifully brief as His reward to the girl for having preserved her chastity until marriage. Subsequent pregnancies, however, usually run their full terms, which only makes sense, as the very fact that they are not first pregnancies means that the mother was not chaste at the moment of conception. ↗

— Trevanian

#the-apple-tree #marriage

I am a dash man and not a miler, and it is probable that I will never write a novel. So far the novels of this war have had too much of the strength, maturity and craftsmanship critics are looking for, and too little of the glorious imperfections which teeter and fall off the best minds. The men who have been in this war deserve some sort of trembling melody rendered without embarrassment or regret. I’ll watch for that book. ↗

— J.D. Salinger

#novel #short-stories #war #writing #wwii

You can't kill an idea the way they try to. You can keep it down awhile, but sooner or later it'll come out. Now what you've got to understand is that the wheel's not evil. Never mind what the scared men all tell you. no discovery is good or evil until men make it that way." -The Wheel, John Wtndham ↗

— John Wyndham

#short-stories #the-wheel #men

The people knew what had made them human. It was not their shortcomings, but their hearts. ↗

— Vanna Bonta

#human-nature #humanity #quote #shortcomings #nature

What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of bliss - absolute bliss - as though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle into every finger and toe?... ↗

— Katherine Mansfield

#nature

The bridge is said to bestow good luck on lovers who share a kiss right where we are standing. Ethan Sterling - Private Emotions ↗

— Elize Amornette

#books-romance #elize-amornette #elize-amornette-author #erotic-short-stories #paranormal-romance

A CD. How quaint. We have these in museums. ↗

— Eoin Colfer

#technology #technology

It is very strange that the years teach us patience - that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting. ↗

— Elizabeth Taylor

#greater #lfe #our #patience #shorter

Look, no matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don’t see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can become. But if you’re surrounded by people who say ‘I want mine now,’ you end up with a few people with everything and a military to keep the poor ones from rising up and stealing it. ↗

— Mitch Albom

#human-beings #potential #shortsightedness #society #truth