Literary Bits for September 13

 Quotes about writing from authors born on September 13:

 

from novelist and short story writer Sherwood Anderson (Winesburg, Ohio, Many Marriages, Dark Laughter) (1876-1941):

The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.

I think the whole glory of writing lies in the fact that it forces us out of ourselves and into the lives of others.

Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything.

Most people are afraid to trust their imaginations and the artist is not.

You must not become a mere peddler of words. The thing to learn is to know what people are thinking about, not what they say.

If you are to become a writer you'll have to stop fooling with words.

If I can write everything out plainly, perhaps I will myself understand better what has happened.

I am pregnant with song. My body aches but do not betray me. I will sing songs and hide them away. I will tear them into bits and throw them in the street. The streets of my city are full of dark holes. I will hide my songs in the holes of the streets.

 

from novelist, playwright, and essayist J. B. Priestley (The Good Companions, Britain Speaks, Bright Day, An Inspector Calls) (1894-1984):

Write as often as possible, not with the idea at once of getting into print, but as if you were learning an instrument.

If you are a genius, you'll make your own rules, but if not - and the odds are against it - go to your desk no matter what your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper - write.

The point is to be good--to be sensitive and sincere.

There are plenty of clever young writers. But there is too much genius, not enough talent.

Much of writing might be described as mental pregnancy with successive difficult deliveries.

Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write.

 

from fiction writer Roald Dahl (James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Tales of the Unexpected) (1916-1990):

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom.

Don't gobblefunk around with words.

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away,

And in its place you can install

A lovely bookshelf on the wall.

Then fill the shelves with lots of books.

Random, Useless Facts--Writer edition

 

Did you know Socrates left no writings at all? What we know of the philosopher comes via his students Plato and Xenophon and the playwright Aristophanes.

Here is some more trivia to drop when the conversation lags at the in-laws:

Lord Byron served wine in a human skull found by the gardener on the grounds of his estate. He even wrote a poem about it: “Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull.”

Printers during Elizabeth I’s reign were not permitted to include the scene in Shakespeare’s Richard II in which the monarch is deposed. The censorship was not lifted until five years after the queen’s death.

Sir Isaac Newton predicted the world will end in 2060. He calculated the date from the 70-some years he spent studying the books of Daniel and Revelation and discussed in Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John.

Shakespeare is credited with writing 37 plays and 154 sonnets. But the plays of another popular Elizabethan playwright—Thomas Watson—are lost to antiquity. Watson’s lyrical poems, written mostly in Latin, are available but his dramatic works have disappeared.

Readers love the story of Abdul Kassem Ismael, a 10th-century grand vizier of Persia. The scholarly ruler traveled with a library of 117,000 volumes carried by 400 camels trained to walk in a fixed order. The camel-driver librarians could lay their hands on whatever volume the master wished to consult.

Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence included an anti-slavery passage that was voted down by Southern delegates to the Continental Congress. Jefferson was so upset by this deletion (and other edits) that for years afterward he sent copies of both the original and amended versions to friends. Few colonials outside the delegates and his closest associates even knew Jefferson was the author until a newspaper article revealed his identity in 1784.

Descartes might have lived to a ripe old age had he not been so flattered by a queen. Queen Christina of Sweden lured him to the palace for private instruction in philosophy, but the harsh Scandinavian winter, lack of central heating, and hours of tutoring took their toll. Descartes caught flu and died at 54.

Writer Sherwood Anderson (Winesburg, Ohio) died of peritonitis. He drank a martini and didn’t realize he’d swallowed the toothpick along with the olive.

Why does the author of Ivanhoe appear on the Scottish bank note? He saved it. In 1826, when British parliament proposed halting the production of bank notes of less than five pounds, Sir Walter Scott wrote a series of letters to the Edinburgh Weekly Journal under the name Malachi Malagrowther defending the right of Scottish banks to print their own notes. His image still appears on all notes issued by the Bank of Scotland.

Leo Tolstoy advocated non-violence towards all creatures. He was giving a lecture on the subject when an audience member asked, "What should I do if attacked in the woods by a tiger?" Tolstoy responded, "Do the best you can. It doesn't happen very often."