Note and Quotes and Writers

Then I found myself immersed in quotes about writing. I know why I copied down Gerald Stern's line, " The book begins on a park bench and ends in a bus station." Those words remind me of the importance of place. Every story needs to have its feet solidly standing in a place, a setting. A Central Park bench, a train station in Slovakia.

Also, Stern, reminds the writer to gather momentum. Don't become bogged down in the minutia and forget to keep moving the story forward.

Then there are titles. I love this one: Walking with the Wind.

Someone said that "in order to write, you have to be willing to be disturbed." That's so true. You begin to write and the words take you places you didn't intend to visit. The whole world tilts.

Simone de Beauvoir wrote " that in order to create, we must be deeply rooted, not living on the periphery." Occasionally when I sit down to write I find myself going places I didn't know existed in me. Then I must follow.

Here's an unattributed quote, " ...ruptures are the most interesting part of any text, that in the ruptures we learn something new." The dictionary tells me that a rupture may be a breach, a severance, a rift or it can be something that tears, snaps, bursts. If everything in the story moves along, as if on a conveyor belt, and nothing happens on that passage it's dull and probably unbelievable. Even in the most bucolic setting thunderstorms appear, water enters the basement, the tire is flat, you miss your flight because of a fight.

Do I dare disturb the universe?
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
--T.S. Elliott