Jan De la Rosa > Jan's Quotes

“I hate feelings. Why does sobriety have to come with feelings?”
― Augusten Burroughs

“Work on a good piece of writing proceeds on three levels: a musical one, where it is composed; an architectural one, where it is constructed; and finally, a textile one, where it is woven.”
― Walter Benjamin, One Way Street And Other Writings

“Will you, or will you not, quit me?' I now demanded in a sudden passion, advancing close to him.
'I would prefer not to quit you', he replied, gently emphasizing the not.”
― Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener

“...If you do not take it up with you in some way, I shall be under the necessity of breaking your head with this shovel”
― Edgar Allan Poe, The Gold Bug

“I would prefer not to.”
― Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener

“Life is shit, thought Pelletier in astonishment, all of it.”
― Roberto Bolaño, 2666

“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“Think of Shakespeare and Melville and you think of thunder, lightning, wind. They all knew the joy of creating in large or small forms, on unlimited or restricted canvases. These are the children of the gods.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“To feed your Muse, then, you should always have been hungry about life since you were a child. If not, it is a little late to start.”
― Ray Bradbury

“Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“You grow ravenous. You run fevers. You know exhilarations. You can't sleep at night, because your beast-creature ideas want out and turn you in your bed. It is a grand way to live.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“I came on the old and best ways of writing through ignorance and experiment and was startled when truths leaped out of brushes like quail before gunshot.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“It is a lie to write in such way as to be rewarded by fame offered you by some snobbish quasi-literary groups in the intellectual gazettes.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“Now that I have you thoroughly confused, let me pause to hear your own dismayed cry.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“And metaphors like cats behind your smile,
Each one wound up to purr,
each one a pride,
Each one a fine gold beast you've hid inside (...)”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“We have our Arts so we won't die of Truth”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“Torture is torture and humiliation is humiliation only when you choose to suffer.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Asfixia

“You gain power by pretending to be weak.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

“By the time you're thirty, your worst enemy is yourself.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“Harry — I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!”
And she sprinted away, up the stairs.
“What does she understand?” said Harry distractedly, still looking around, trying to tell where the voice had come from.
“Loads more than I do,” said Ron, shaking his head.
“But why’s she got to go to the library?”
“Because that’s what Hermione does,” said Ron, shrugging. “When in doubt, go to the library.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

“[Los alumnos de Almafitano aprendieron...]
Que la principal enseñanza de la literatura era la valentía, una valentía rara, como un pozo de piedra en medio de un paisaje lacustre, una valentía semejante a un torbellino y a un espejo. Que no era más cómodo leer que escribir. Que leyendo se aprendía a dudar y a recordar. Que la memoria era el amor.”
― Roberto Bolaño, Los sinsabores del verdadero policía

“We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain”
― Roberto Bolaño, Last Evenings on Earth

“Sobre el mercado editorial, bueno, yo creo que es una estafa: un montón de analfabetos funcionales comprando libros de algunos necios. Lo que hoy se entiende por literatura o por mercado editorial es una estafa disfrazada de intenciones políticamente correctas. No tiene nada que ver con la literatura.”
― Roberto Bolaño

“Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“Ladies in bunches always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird