Just For Fun Friday 08/16/13

quill

Maybe not entirely humorous, but interesting thoughts taken from The Book of Poisonous Quotes, compiled by Colin M. Jarman.  My comments are in parentheses, but I found it most strange that the majority of the ‘Literature’ quotations are by writers or publishers, about writers or their works: 

 

A Literary Critic is a person who can find a meaning in literature that the author didn’t know was there – Cleveland Times.    (I read somewhere that Harper Lee, being pressed by a reporter to discuss the deeper meaning found in To Kill a Mockingbird, replied, “‘Sometimes a story is just a story.”)

The chap who said that truth is stranger than fiction died before fiction reached its present state of development. – Elmira Star Gazette

The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace a hardcover book – it makes a very poor doorstop. – Alfred Hitchcock    (I, too prefer a heavy hardcover book, but not for this reason!)book stack

It does no harm to repeat as often as you can: “Without me the literary industry would not exist: the publishers, the agents, the subagents, the sub-subagents, …the reviewers, the book pages – all this vast and proliferating edifice is because of this small, patronized, put-down and underpaid person.” – Doris Lessing 

Poetry is what gets lost in translationRobert Frost

Poetry is living proof that rhyme doesn’t payAnonymous   (Can I have an ‘Amen’ to this one?)

On her lastConstant Reader Column” – I am about to leave literature flat on its face.  I don’t want to review books any more.  It cuts in too much on my reading. – Dorothy Parker, The New Yorker

On “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”We fancy that any real child might be more puzzled than enchanted by this stiff, overwrought story. – Children’s Books, 1865    (Hey – I’m just along for the ride!)

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6 Responses

  1. Dorothy Johnson
    Dorothy Johnson August 29, 2013 at 10:33 pm |

    Good quotes! Enjoyed this one.

  2. sandra harrison
    sandra harrison August 28, 2013 at 11:21 am |

    Hey, thanks for bringing the quote of Doris Lessing to my attention. I had never heard it but I really like it. Keep up the good work… love your writing and love your blog.

  3. Marilyn H. Collins
    Marilyn H. Collins August 17, 2013 at 5:12 pm |

    Great quotes. I use quotes in my workshops and writing guide books. They often say exactly what you think or feel in just a few words.

  4. Arline Chandler
    Arline Chandler August 16, 2013 at 11:19 am |

    Liked today’s post. I love quotes!

  5. patlaster
    patlaster August 16, 2013 at 10:38 am |

    Sounds like some of the stuff I read and then write down in my journal. Read my latest Amazon review on Jeffery Skinner’s “The 6.5 Practices of Moderately Successful Poets.” I have the book but want to keep it close by to refer to often. xoxo

  6. Freeda Baker Nichols
    Freeda Baker Nichols August 16, 2013 at 6:29 am |

    Enjoyed your post!

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