#craft

The aircraft that blew up the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington conveyed several messages to the world, of which one of the least remarked is this: the Muslims of the world are suffering. ↗

— James Buchan

#blew #center #conveyed #least #messages

Throw a stick, and the servile dog wheezes and pants and stumbles to bring it to you. Do the same before a cat, and he will eye you with coolly polite and somewhat bored amusement. And just as inferior people prefer the inferior animal which scampers excitedly because someone else wants something, so do superior people respect the superior animal which lives its own life and knows that the puerile stick-throwings of alien bipeds are none of its business and beneath its notice. The dog barks and begs and tumbles to amuse you when you crack the whip. That pleases a meekness-loving peasant who relishes a stimulus to his self importance. The cat, on the other hand, charms you into playing for its benefit when it wishes to be amused; making you rush about the room with a paper on a string when it feels like exercise, but refusing all your attempts to make it play when it is not in the humour. That is personality and individuality and self-respect -- the calm mastery of a being whose life is its own and not yours -- and the superior person recognises and appreciates this because he too is a free soul whose position is assured, and whose only law is his own heritage and aesthetic sense. ↗

— H.P. Lovecraft

#dogs #lovecraft #business

[N]othing about a book is so unmistakable and so irreplaceable as the stamp of the cultured mind. I don't care what the story is about or what may be the momentary craze for books that appear to have been hammered out by the village blacksmith in a state of intoxication; the minute you get the easy touch of the real craftsman with centuries of civilisation behind him, you get literature. ↗

— Dorothy L. Sayers

#craft #craftsmanship #creative-process #crudeness #culture

In the end, fiction is the craft of telling truth through lies. ↗

— Lauren Groff

#on-fiction #writing #writing-craft

You don’t create a diamond by rubbing it with fluffy bunny slippers. You need to apply pressure and heat. There are enough air-headed cheerleaders out there. We need more drill sergeants. ↗

— Julie Ann Dawson

#writer-feedback #writing-craft #writing-craft

Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil. J.Paul Getty ↗

— Alison Wong

#writing-craft

... yes I speak a different language - the dark fire of poetry - it flutters and gutters in tune with the mood ... ↗

— John Geddes

#different-language #mood #poetry #writing-craft #writing-craft

Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up. ↗

— John Edgar Wideman

#importance-of-words #insightful #writing-craft #writing-craft

People should know better than to be an ass in front of writers. We immortalize things. Lots of things. And we take liberties with character descriptions. ↗

— Michelle M. Pillow

#character #fantasy #fiction #michelle-pillow #romance-novel

One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline.... But also every single day a kid needs a break. ↗

— Anne Lamott

#writing-craft #life