Tag: books
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J.K. Rowling revisits her masterpiece
J.K. Rowling reflects on annotating the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. “I wrote the book … in snatched hours, in clattering cafés or in the dead of night … The story of how I wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is written invisibly on every page, legible only to me. Sixteen years after […]
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Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage”
It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who […]
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‘Good work only comes through revision’
After a lifetime of hounding authors for advice, I’ve heard three truths from every mouth: (1) Writing is painful— it’s ‘fun’ only for novices, the very young, and hacks; (2) other than a few instances of luck, good work only comes through revision; (3) the best revisers often have reading habits that stretch back before […]
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‘The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it’
“Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. The more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more […]
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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life. I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in. The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as in long swallows. Waiting rooms were made for books—of course! But so are […]
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‘The writer feeds his book’
The writer feeds his book, he strengthens the parts of it which are weak, he protects it, but afterwards it is the book that grows, that designates its author’s tomb and defends it against the world’s clamour and for a while against oblivion. Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time
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‘She ignored whatever did not interest her’
She ignored whatever did not interest her. With those blows she opened her days like a piñata. A hundred freedoms fell on her. She hitched free years to her lifespan like a kite tail. Everyone envied her the time she had, not noticing that they had equal time. Annie Dillard, The Maytrees A wonderful perspective […]
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Abraham Lincoln on writing
“Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind, through the eye— is the great invention of the world.” Abraham Lincoln
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‘I wish I’d spent more time on…’ and ‘I wish I’d spent less time on…’
Imagine you are eighty years old – assuming you’re not eighty already, that is; if you are, you’ll have to pick an older age – and then complete the sentences ‘I wish I’d spent more time on…’ and ‘I wish I’d spent less time on…’. This turns out to be a surprisingly effective way to […]
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Mechanical paper tech by Kelli Anderson
These popup contraptions are extraordinary. Created by artist Kelli Anderson, This Book Is a Planetarium (Amazon) book contains interactive constructions of a planetarium, a musical instrument, a speaker and more. Writes the artist on her blog: I published a pop-up book of mechanical paper tech.Expanding out of This Book is a Planetarium’s pages, you’ll find: a stringed instrument, a […]
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Take what you’ve done and throw it away
If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away. The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it […]
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Haruki Murakami: ‘I run in order to acquire a void’
“But really as I run, I don’t think much of anything worth mentioning. I just run. I run in a void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void… As I run I tell myself to think of a river. And clouds. But essentially I’m not […]