This post's purpose is to collect my common tags in one place, so readers (and I!) can easily access entries on several subjects.

Tom Purdom reminded me of this awesome, awesome bit from Patrick O'Brian the other day, from the Aubrey-Maturin series. In this section, Jack Aubrey is speaking to Stephen Maturin about some new music he's acquired.

( Bach had a father. )

Justine Larbalestier talks about finishing writing projects.

"My immediate response is that no book is ever "well and truly done." They could all be made better. Every single one of them, yes, even Pride and Prejudice. There is not point at which "you shouldn't tamper with a story anymore ( Read more... )

Tom Purdom told me of the Age of Pulp, "when writers were iron and stories were wooden."

"That is the dematerializing control. And that, over yonder, is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner, those are the doors, that is a chair with a panda on it. Sheer poetry, dear boy. Now please stop bothering me."

--The Doctor, "The Time Meddler"

"The erotic is a measure between our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves ( Read more... )

"I write when I can and I don't write when I can't . . . I wait for inspiration . . . The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day, when a professional writer doesn't do anything but write. He doesn't have to write, and if he doesn't feel like it he shouldn't try. He can look out the window or stand on his head ( Read more... )

"And of course I am afraid, because the transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation, and that always seems fraught with danger."

--Audre Lorde
Sister/Outsider, 1984

Words of Raymond Chandler ( Read more... )

( A quote I love from the first couple of pages. )