Quotable Quotes discussion
For the writers out there
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by
Brad
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 12:56PM)
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Oct 04, 2007 12:37PM

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My older daughter is my very best reader and adviser on my work-in-progress. She sent me the quote below as a gentle reminder not to rush.
From ENDURING LOVE by Ian McEwan:
"The best description of a reality does not need to mimic it's velocity. Whole books, whole research departments, are dedicated to
the first half-minute in the history of the universe. Vertiginous theories of chaos and turbulence are predicted upon the supremacy of
initial conditions, which need painstaking description."

I was wondering what the longest treatment of a small amount of time has been in literature. I'm just about finished with The Sportswriter which takes place over three days and is 375 pages. Ulysses has that beat with a single day and being looong.
"mimic its velocity" is a nice phrase.

Here's a quote from another of my favorite writers, Barry Unsworth, from SUGAR AND RUM:
"All literature begins with the pressure of a secret, some unique perception that needs urgently to be expressed."


"A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all." - Rita Mae Brown

--Middlesex
"It’s impossible to do justice to the smell in words. One may try to quicken the olfactory imagination with poetic evocations like 'suppurating abscess…colonic effluvia…smegma.'"
--Et Tu, Babe
"What actually was spoken, while moving enough to those involved at the actual time, flattens like toothpaste when transferred to paper for later reading: 'my dove,' 'my only,' 'bliss, bliss,' et cetera."
--The Princess Bride
"Writing is like pulling teeth. From my dick."
--Don't Get Too Comfortable

