Amazing article that articulates far better than I ever could what I think about faith, certainty, love and conflict.
Talented quitters are a dime a dozen, but people with marginal talent who commit to hard work in the day-to-day grind always stand out as radical.
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| — | Daniel Darling - 3 Reasons Why Faithful Is the New Radical |
Part of what impelled him was stubbornness; resentment, even. The system had filed him among the rejects, and what he was studying was considered - at the decision-making levels, the levels of real power - an archaic waste of time. Well then, he would pursue the superfluous as an end in itself. He would be its champion, its defender and preserver. Who was it who’d said that all art was completely useless? Jimmy couldn’t recall, but hooray for him, whoever he was.
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| — | Margaret Atwood, ‘Oryx and Crake’ |
He has to find more and better ways of occupying his time. His time - what a bankrupt idea, as if he’s been give a box of time belonging to him alone, stuffed to the brim with hours and minutes that he can spend like money. Trouble is, the box has holes in it and the time is running out, no matter what he does with it.
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| — | Margaret Atwood, ‘Oryx and Crake’ |
‘Oh never mind,’ said his mother. She often tried to explain things to him; then she got discouraged. These were the worst moments, for both of them. He resisted her, he pretended he didn’t understand even when he did, he acted stupid, but he didn’t want her to give up on him. He wanted her to be brave, to try her best with him, to hammer away at the wall he’d put up against her, to keep on going.
‘I want to hear about the tiny cells,’ he said, whining as much as he dared. ‘I want to!’
‘Not today,’ she said. ‘Let’s just go in.’
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| — | Margaret Atwood, ‘Oryx and Crake’ |
‘A good father?’
‘Yes, like yours. A man with a head, a heart, and a soul. A man capable of listening, of leading and respecting a child, and not of drowning his own defects in him. Someone whom a child will not only love because he’s his father but will also admire for the person he is. Someone he would want to grow up to resemble.’
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| — | Carlos Ruiz Zafron, ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ |
Isaac smiled with some sadness. ‘As a child she’d remember everything. Everything. Then children grow up, and you no longer know what they think or what they feel. And that’s how it should be I suppose.
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| — | Carlos Ruiz Zafron, ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ |
(Anne Tyler’s) method of composition… has remained the same over the years. ‘I always write in longhand. I do it over and over again. I don’t know how many drafts. And then I put it in the computer, print it all out, and I do it all over again in longhand. I know this sounds so laborious, but then I read it all into a tape recorder. The advantage is that when you read something aloud, you can say, oh, that sounds so fake, particularly if you are reading dialogue.’ She then retypes it into the computer, whereupon the book is finally finished.
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| — | The Sunday Times, Culture (11th March 2012) |
