QUOTATIONS
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When she sat down on the stool next to me she nodded toward the counterman and said, “Shorty’s got a heart of steel, mister. Won’t even trust me for a cup of joe until I get a job. Care to finance me to a few vitamins?” I was too tired to argue the point. “Make… Read more
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Once, about a decade ago, my daughter Dylan sent me an out-of-the-blue text asking me if I were a Deadhead. I told her at that time that I was not sure since I had only seen the Dead in concert once and The Jerry Garcia Band twice. In my mind, Deadheads were those people who… Read more
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“Right up the street under the el was an all-night hash joint, and what I needed was a couple mugs of good black java to bring me around.” (Spillane, Mickey. My Gun is Quick.) Read more
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Growth is about letting go and forgiveness, forgiving others and especially ourselves. May your days and the year ahead be one of letting go and forgiveness. Happy New Year! “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”– Herman Hesse “Finish each day and be done with it. You… Read more
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“Coffee gives you time to think. It’s a lot more than just a drink; it’s something happening. Not as in hip, but like an event, a place to be, but not like a location, but like somewhere within yourself. It gives you time, but not actual hours or minutes, but a chance to be, like… Read more
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[Those who complain about the ambiguity or obscurity of modern poetry] “should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another.” ~ W. H. Auden Read more
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Thoreau is one the our most quotable writers. It is one of the reasons that those of us who are Thoreau fans re-read him so regularly. Reading “Walking” again I have underlined the following lines (there are many, many more I could include): In literature it is only the wild that attracts us. * *… Read more
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In his famous 1944 essay, “The Simple Art of Murder,” Raymond Chandler openly acknowledged Hammett’s genius. He properly credited him as “the ace performer,” the one writer responsible for the creation and development of the hard-boiled school of literature, the genre’s revolutionary realist. “He took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into… Read more
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Each morning as I stand at my desk writing, I have a companion, sometimes two. I cannot imagine writing now without having a cat with me. A cat is the perfect companion for a writer. Because the literary relationship between cats and writers is such a natural one, it is not surprising to discover that… Read more
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“I don’t even glance at the herbal teas, I go straight for the real, vile coffee. Jitter in a cup. It cheers me up to know I’ll soon be so tense.” — Margaret Atwood Read more
ClimbingSky 