Alexandra Bogdanovic's Blog: That's life... - Posts Tagged "sayings"

Judging by the number of views last week's post got, the topic clearly resonated with a lot of you.
And while I appreciate your support, it left me in a bit of a pickle. How can I top that? I've been thinking. The answer is, I probably can't. So I decided to shift gears this week.
After all, even I can only rant and rave so much.
So without further ado, here are my all-time favorite quotes about writing, reading and related activities. Enjoy!
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1. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. ― Benjamin Franklin
2. There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
― Ernest Hemingway
3. If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ― Toni Morrison
4. Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. ― Louis L'Amour
5. I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn. ― Anne Frank
6. The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. ― Dr. Seuss
7. Classic - a book which people praise and don't read. ― Mark Twain
8. If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. ― Stephen King
9. You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. ― Ray Bradbury
10. Readers are not sheep, and not every pen tempts them. ― Vladimir Nabokov
11. Read a lot, write a lot is the great commandment. ― Stephen King
12. She has learned to love. To fear. To hate. And then to love again. Through it all, she writes. ~Once Upon A Time There Was A Girl ― Kimberly Kinrade

Until next time, "That's life..."

For this week's illustration, I created a "word cloud" based on one of my all-time favorite quotations. It is, as Virginia Woolf so eloquently said, "If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people."
Given recent news about authors who allegedly fabricated material in well-known books chronicling personal experiences, I couldn't think of a better quotation or subject for discussion.
In order to properly frame said discussion however, I must first review the differences between memoir, autobiography and fact-based novels.
While memoir and autobiography are both non-fiction, there is a significant difference between the genres. Generally speaking, a memoir chronicles a certain period or aspect of the author's life. An autobiography is devoted to the author's entire life.
On the other hand, fact-based novels, or novels "based on true experiences" are exactly that. Consequently, authors of such novels can take certain liberties with character and plot development.
Those of us who have written memoirs and autobiographies don't have the same leeway. For memoirists, it is especially important to remain faithful to the truth no matter what. We must be brutally honest not only with our readers, but with ourselves. Trust me, I speak from experience.
In my memoir, I was incredibly honest not only about my experience with my ex, but about myself. Because I chose to be truthful about my life, some critics have said my memoir lacks conflict, a "story arc" and "character development." Others have said I included too much mundane detail.
Well, let's be honest. For most of us, life is boring and mundane. Daily drudgery is just that. Frankly there was nothing extraordinary about my life whatsoever until my former-husband's revelation turned it upside down. And although I endured a tremendous betrayal at his hands, there wasn't a lot of conflict between us even after he shared his secret.
I suppose some readers would expect me to invent these details to satisfy their expectations. But the bottom line is that an award-winning journalist, I never manipulated the facts to sensationalize an issue and as an author I refused to manipulate the facts of my own life just to make my book more "marketable" or "entertaining." After all, I wrote a memoir, not a novel based on true experiences.
Neither I nor my ex-husband, nor anyone else in my memoir are "characters" that had to be developed. I made a conscious decision not to cheapen my life experience by writing "true fiction" that could be bent and twisted to appeal to the masses.
Apparently a North Korean prison camp survivor who recently confessed to lying about some details in a best-selling book about his life wasn't inclined to hold himself to the same standards.
Neither, apparently, was a teenager who recently admitted that the events in his memoir, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, never occurred. In published reports, the teen, who co-wrote the book with his father, said he fabricated the story in order to get attention.
In one case, the publisher announced that it will stop selling the book. In the other, the North Korean prison camp survivor said he is now considering ending his human rights campaign. In any case I hope their stories serve as stark reminders that every action has consequences.
As for me, I have no regrets and I make no apologies. As the great William Shakespeare put it, "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Until next time, "That's life..."

As someone once said, "A picture is worth a thousand words."
I must confess that as a writer, I used to hate that saying. I resented the idea that photographers captured images that easily conveyed or evoked emotions that I often struggled to put into words.
But somewhere along the line, photography became an interest and then hobby and then something that I did as part of my job. Now it's something I do for fun. Let's just call it another creative outlet.
At any rate, the resentment I once felt is now a thing of the past. Now I admire the photographers who have the technical skill I have never mastered. I have tremendous respect for skilled professionals like my friends Lisa, Adam and Randy.
But instead of emulating those who have mastered the craft, I've created my own unique style while embracing urban photography, beach photography, automotive photography and travel photography. Of all the places I love to shoot, New York City is my favorite. Since I love big, bold graphic images, Times Square is my favorite place to shoot in the Big Apple.
For some reason, I rarely photograph people. Perhaps it has something to do with my dislike of having my own picture taken. I've gotten a few shots of people that I like. One is of a man walking down Main Street in Warrenton, Va., during a snow storm. The other is the one I used as an illustration for this blog. I took it while visiting Lake Eleola Park in Orlando, Fla., a couple of weeks ago.
It was a beautiful, warm early February afternoon, and a number of people were sitting on the park benches near the veterans memorial. But this particular person caught my attention. I couldn't help but wonder about his or her story. After all, everybody has one.
Until next time, "That's life...'

It doesn't really matter if you've met me in person or in print. Either way, you always know where I stand on any issue. I speak my mind. I don't care what anyone thinks.
Yes, I am brash. I am outspoken... and opinionated.
So of course I love New York.
It's filthy. It's grimy. It's crowded. It's loud. It's ridiculously expensive. It's tough. It's resilient. It's beautiful.
There is no room for argument or debate. There is no doubt about it. New York City is the greatest city in the world. Period. End of story.
If you don't believe me, consider the following:
1. “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
2. “I love New York, even though it isn't mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.”
― Truman Capote
3. “The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.”― John Updike
4. “One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” ― Tom Wolfe
5. “New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous.
But there is one thing about it - once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.”
― John Steinbeck
6. “London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it.”
― Dorothy Parker
7. “You can do what you like, sir, but I'll tell you this. New York is the true capital of America. Every New Yorker knows it, and by God, we always shall.”― Edward Rutherfurd, New York
8. “New York is made up of millions of different people, and they all come here looking for something” ― Lindsey Kelk, I Heart New York
9. “When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is. Clean is not enough.” ― Fran Lebowitz
10.“Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book -and does”― Groucho Marx
11. “When you leave New York you ain't going anywhere.” ― Jimmy Breslin
12. “My advice for aspiring writers is go to New York. And if you can’t go to New York, go to the place that represents New York to you, where the standards for writing are high, there are other people who share your dreams, and where you can talk, talk, talk about your interests. Writing books begins in talking about it, like most human projects, and in being close to those who have already done what you propose to do.”
― Walter Kirn
Until next time, "That's life..."