Favorite words

[alwaysamy]

When you see this, post a couple of quotations from your own favorite writers. These should be people you read over and over again, not people who had one great idea; go ahead and do it from memory, mistakes and all.

Louisa May Alcott, from Little Women:

It wasn't at all the thing, I'm afraid, but the minute she was fairly married, Meg cried, "The first kiss for Marmee!" and, turning, gave it with her heart on her lips.

Sylvia Plath, from "Morning Song":

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Edith Wharton, from The Age of Innocence:

There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free; and he had long since discovered that May's only use of the liberty she supposed herself to possess would be to lay it on the altar of her wifely adoration.

Stephen King, from On Writing:

This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit.

Lorrie Moore, from "How to Beoome a Writer":

First, try to be something, anything, else. A movie star/astronaut. A movie star/ missionary. A movie star/kindergarten teacher. President of the World. Fail miserably. It is best if you fail at an early age - say, 14. Early, critical disillusionment is necessary so that at 15 you can write long haiku sequences about thwarted desire...This is the required pain and suffering. This is only for starters.

Comments

[gingerk.livejournal.com]

I almost included "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

"'It's so dreadful to be poor!' sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

[amy37.livejournal.com]

Aw, yeah! I should have, myself. There are so many parts of that book I could quote, it's a little embarrassing.

[cass404.livejournal.com]

"The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When a secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear."

~ Stephen King, also from On Writing

[amy37.livejournal.com]

I love this! And I love Stephen King. Much as I've loved almost all of his books, I could listen to him talk about writing forever.

[cass404.livejournal.com]

I can't read his books. I don't like to be scared.

But I could read him talking about writing a *lot*. The book was a hand me down and I didn't really plan to read it but I glanced and I was hooked.