The Dead Writers Round-Up: 6th-8th June

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  • Thomas Mann was born on 6/6/1875. “A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a truth.”
  • Elizabeth Bowen was born on 6/7/1899. “Art is one thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting.”
  • Gwendolyn Brooks was born on 6/7/1917. “Art hurts. Art urges voyages-and it is easier to stay at home.”
  • Dorothy Parker died on 6/7/1967. “I shall stay the way I am because I do not give a damn.”
  • E.M. Forster died on 6/7/1970. “America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large.”
  • Henry Miller died on 6/7/1980. “An artist is always alone-if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.”
  • Thomas Paine died on 6/8/1809. “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”
  • George Sand died on 6/8/1876. “Admiration and familiarity are strangers.”
  • Marguerite Yourcenar was born on 6/8/1903. “A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print.”

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[All images are in the Public Domain and are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]

 

14 thoughts on “The Dead Writers Round-Up: 6th-8th June”

  1. The very first quote is amazing! I also loved the Henry Miller quote – I guess this goes with every creative person – you could put it in another way and say: Every creative person need space – wether it be some sort of privacy or actual space for creative output. – Thanks for sharing!

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    • It isn’t personal at all, but thanks for that consideration. I’m happy to answer (although it is not very interesting). It usually comes down to one of the following: 1-current mood; 2-personal head space at that time; 3-instinctive affinity; 4-ability to provoke a thought process in people; 5-humour; 6-intelligence. I usually agree with at least the basic principle of each quote, if not the entire sentiment, but not always. I like to mix it up; if it was all about my personal viewpoint I would just put up quotes from my writing. Some quotes I agree passionately with, though.

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      • That’s pretty much what I thought. The reason I suggested it might be personal, is because I tend to only remember quotes (and hardly accurately) which meant or mean something to me. There’s an irony in using quotes when you remember them this way: people think you have a quote for every occasion, but they hardly ever realize that you’re telling them what you think; it’s just that the quote conveys the idea more succinctly than I am able at the time.

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      • I am a huge quote collector/connoisseur. I have kept quote books for years; I don’t even know what volume I am on now. Every quote I use here I agree with to an extent (and some 100% reflect my opinion, at least at that time), even if they just reflect my current mood. They are all meaningful to me in some way, so I guess that from that standpoint they could be considered personal. I don’t post other people’s words lightly, ever. But certain sayings, reflections and phrases mean more to me than others. I’m drawn to some simply because they make me think, even if I don’t entirely know how I feel about the sentiment. I guess it is more complicated than I thought. Bottom line: I love quotes.

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