Literary Bits for October 11

 

Thoughts about writing from authors born October 11:

 

from Nobel Prize-winning novelist, dramatist, poet, and essayist Francois Mauriac (Thérèse Desqueyroux, Le Noeud de vipères) (1885-1970):

If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.

I write whenever it suits me. During a creative period I write every day; a novel should not be interrupted.

I believe that only poetry counts ... A great novelist is first of all a great poet.

 --

from short story writer, novelist, and screenwriter Elmore Leonard (“Three-Ten to Yuma,” Hombre, Joe Kidd, Fifty-two Pickup, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Justified) (1925-2013):

My purpose is to entertain and please myself. I feel that if I am entertained, then there will be enough other readers who will be entertained, too.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.

If I just sit here, what am I going to do? I don't have a trade. I don't teach or anything. I just love to make up characters and gradually build a story around them.

I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

 --

from novelist and environmentalist Daniel Quinn (Ishmael, Beyond Civilization) (1935-2018):

Don't wait. Where do you expect to get by waiting? Doing is what teaches you. Doing is what leads to inspiration. Doing is what generates ideas. Nothing else, and nothing less.

 --

from screenwriter-director Charles Shyer (Baby Boom, Father of the Bride) (1941-   ):

Like Billy Wilder said, 'You want to make them laugh and you want to make them cry,' and it's very hard to do so. If you ground it in reality, you get a more honest comedy. You don't have to reach for jokes to manufacture situations as much.

 --

from short story writer, novelist, and non-fiction author Anne Enright (The Portable Virgin, What Are You Like?, Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood, The Gathering, The Forgotten Waltz, The Green Road) (1962-   ):

Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.

Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you ­finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.

People do not change, they are merely revealed.

 --

from pop rock singer-songwriter Daryl Hall (Daryl Hall & John Oates) (1946-   ):

Reject what you don't want. Get rid of dead wood.

When you have that first flash of what you think is going to be a great idea—from the mouth, from the hands—that's an amazing feeling. I don't think anything's quite as good as that.