Thursday, December 16, 2010

Favorite quotes: The Twyla Tharp series: 3

If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge."

Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

favorite quotes: The Twyla Tharp series: 2

"In order to be creative you have to know how to prepare to be creative."

          Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

favorite quotes: The Twyla Tharp series: 1

"In the end, there is no one ideal condition for creativity.  What works for one person is useless for another.  The only criterion is this:  Make it easy on yourself.  Find a working environment where the prospect of wrestling with your muse doesn't scare you, doesn't shut you down.  It should make you want to be there, and once you find it, stick with it.  To ge the creative habit, you need a working environment that's habit forming."

 Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

Monday, November 29, 2010

favorite quotes: Montaigne says...

"The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself."

          Montaigne

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Favorite quotes: ...Oscar de la Renta

"...they make my dresses look young.  And this generation seems to understand that a well-lived life is a question of attitude.  It takes a lot of discipline.  That is true of fashion as well."
  
          Oscar de la Renta

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Favorite quotes: ...Victor Frankel

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.  They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing:  the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

        Victor Frankel

Monday, November 22, 2010

Favorite quotes: ...but I don't know who said it...

"Every narrative arises from one of two situations:  someone goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town"

A reliable source tells me that the quote is by John Gardener

??

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Favorite quotes: Life is not long...

"Life is not long and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent."

 Samuel Johnson

Monday, November 15, 2010

Rat's Country: I'll cheer up, soon.

 Like that creature from the Black Lagoon, what was his name, I rise from the mire of my own emotions to light a candle, then blow it out.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Favorite quotes: Every writer...works differently...

"Every writer of course works differently, but I suspect that most novels begin in their writers' minds as confusions of images, impulses, scattered meanings, devotions, grudges, fixations, and some vague sort of plot, to name just a few."


      from Michael Cunningham's introduction to a new translation ofThomas Mann's Death in Venice

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Favorite quotes: A good place to look for wisdom...

"A good place to look for wisdom, therefore, is where you least expect to find it:  in the minds of your opponents."

Jonathan Haidt,  The Happiness Hypothesis

Monday, November 8, 2010

Favorite quotes: Retirement is...

"To begin, it is an immediate, and usually irrevocable, step into second-class citizenship.  Once retired, you are one with blacks, Hispanics, the handicapped, homosexuals, jailbirds, the insane, the retarded, children and women:  America's Third World hordes.  America doesn't like oldpeople, and retired people are old people, whether they are 45, 55 or 65.  old people clutter up the landscape.  Their families do't want them.  Their communities do't want them.  They are a nightmare vision of everyone's future.  They are of interest mainly to doctors and hospitals, real-estate brokers and travel agents--but not as people, rather as bodies from whom some final payment can still be exacted..."

"The First Step to the Cemetery" by Kenneth Bernard  Newsweek, February 22, 1982

        

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Favorite quotes, sort of: "It doesn't bode well..."

"Sometimes it's easy to tell when a romantic relationship is about to take a dive.  It doesn't bode well if you would rather sort socks than go out on a date or if neither of you can think of much to say.  Another bad sign is when--consciously or not--you associate your lover with words like "death" and "attacking."

"Telltale Heart, A test of hidden attitudes predicts relationship decay," Scientific American Mind, Nov. Dec. 2010.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

First sentences: Eugenie Grandet

In certain provincial towns there are houses which create a feeling of melancholy equal to that aroused by the gloomiest cloisters, the bleakest moorland, or the most mournful ruins.

Eugenie Grandet by Honore De Balzac

Monday, November 1, 2010

Rat's Country: the most famous November rumination

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul: whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Rat's Country: Stephen King: On Paragraphs, of all things...

"You can tell without even reading if the book you've chosen is apt to be easy or hard, right?  Easy books contain lots of short paragraphs--including dialogue paragraphs which may only be a word or two long--and lots of white space.  They're as airy as Dairy Queen ice cream cones.  Hard books, ones full of ideas, narration, or description, have a stouter look.  A packed look.  Paragraphs are almost as important for how they look as for what they say; they are maps of intent."

              from On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft

Monday, September 20, 2010

Rat's Country: Writing in a journal has been my way...

Writing in a journal has been my way of talking myself off the ledge, through the window, back into the room.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Rat's Country: Another Stephen King quote from On Writing ...

"I am approaching the heart of this book with two theses, both simple. The first is that good writing consists  of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instuments.  The second is that while it is impossibe to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it  is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one."

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Rat's Country: The difference between "in" and "at"

I was reading some words of wisdom by a new age philosopher, who wasn't Eckhart Tolle but similar,  and he was reminding me of the importance of "being in the present moment."  So true.

I thought of a college student of mine, a  basketball player from somehwere in the South, who would answer roll by saying, "Here!  At the present moment."  Even truer.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Rat's Country: Stephen King, On Writing, quote du jour

"There are the really good writers.  Above them--above almost all of us--are the Shakespeares, the Faulkners, the Yeatses, Shaws, and Eudora Weltys.  They are geniuses, divine accidents, gifted in a way which is beyond our ability to understand, let alone attain.  Shit,  most geniuses aren't able to understand themselves, and many of them lead miserable lives, realizing (at least on some level) that they are nothing but fortunate freaks, the intellectual version of runway models who just happen to be born with the right cheekbones and with breasts which fit the image of an age."

Stephen King, On Writing, a Memoir of the Craft

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Rat's Country: What Would Fido Do?

What Would Fido Do?

Don't succor your  grievance
 the way a dog does
with  self-absorbed licking
of nicks and scratches.

Shed your  annoyance
the way  a wet dog
shakes off the rain,
then curls into a ball,
 falls asleep.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Rat's Country: The saddest suicide in literature

"And just at the moment when the midpoint between the two wheels came even with her, she threw the red bag aside and, drawing her head down between her shoulders, fell on her hands under the carriage, and with a light movement, as if preparing to get up again at once, sank to her knees..."Lord, forgive me for eveything!" she said, feeling the impossibility of any struggle."

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Friday, September 10, 2010

Rat's Country: Quit yearning...

Quit yearning!  It is like bleeding, a seepage, a slow draining of hope.  It weakens you.  You could die from yearning and not even notice.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Rat's Country: "I want to tell you a really, really sad story..."

Me:  "I want to tell you a really, really sad story about someone who died tragically..."

Ninety-five year old mother:   "If they died, that's not a sad story."

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Friday, September 3, 2010

Rat's Country: When I See Women Kiss...

"When I see women kiss, I think they hate each other."

A great quote from a Trollope novel, but I forgot to write down which one.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Rat's Country: When We Judge Distance...

"When we judge distance desired objects seem nearer..."
      
          Valerie Ross, "Closing the Gap," Scientific American Mind, July/August 2010

Oh, the implications...

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Rat's Country: Blank Slate

"In a book he wrote about his beliefs, he left every other page blank so that if readers had better ideas than his they could write them in."
      
            from "Bachy and Visionaries," NYTimes Book Review, August 20, 1995

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Rat's Country: How our brains make decisions

"Sadly, our brains aren't good at making decisions either.  For example, too often, we make choices based on our fear of losing something, rather than our hope of gaining something."

                                       Douglas C. Merrill,  Getting Organized in the Google Era

Friday, July 30, 2010

Monday, July 26, 2010

Rat's Country: Begin the week thinking about generosity...

The woman who sells blueberries at the farmer's market in Fort Bragg told me this:  "I am a retired nurse and there's this doctor I know, worked with for years, and when he comes to the farmer's market to buy blueberries, he always gives me a hundred dollar bill.  He says, 'Give the next twenty-five people a basket of blueberries.'"

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Rat's Country: I had an awful thought about...

I had an awful thought about spending so much time with old, old people:  that maybe you can catch senility just the way you can catch a  cold

Friday, July 2, 2010

Rat's Country: Fixed star

 Writing in my journal allows me to start my day as a fixed star in my private universe rather than as a busy little satellite spinning around someone else's planet.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Rat's Country: You are your own saboteur when...

You are your own saboteur when the need to not get what you need is greater than the need to get what you need.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Favorite quotes: Aristotle plans...

"Aristotle said that the most characteristically human activity is planning your life, yet it's amazing how few people take life planning seriously.  Those who do are productive people: those who don't disappear under the surface without leaving a bubble behind to brighten the world.  So strongly did the Greeks believe in planning that they literally planned their lives, dividing them into seven-year periods and deciding what they wanted to accomplish during each of those periods."

                   "Author's Note" A Writer's Time.  Kenneth Atchity.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Favorite Quotes: Jack Kerouac says...

"No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language, and knowledge."

                                Jack Kerouac

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Rat's Country: "Working through" something

“Working through” something doesn’t mean your feelings have to change.  It means honestly experiencing the stages of feeling, examining them, and if there doesn’t seem enough internal justification to stay in one particular state of mind, don’t.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Favorite Quotes: Susan's e-mail from Italy

"...keep turning another corner with an open mind and heart.  Life begins at the end of your comfort zone..."

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Rat's Country: "I am I plus my surroundings..."



“I am I plus my surroundings and if I do not preserve the latter, I do not preserve myself.”

                                       Jose Ortega Y Gasset, philosopher and essayist (1883-1955)

Friday, June 4, 2010

Rat's Country: I Know a Woman with Tissues

I know a woman with tissues.  She wads tissues into the pockets of her jackets.  Her tissues pad the bottom of her purse.  She keeps tissues on the lid of her toilet, beside her bed.  There are tissues in every room of her house.

Actually, she has more tissues than anyone I know.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Rat's Country: Another Parable about Going Down a Road

We know this woman who goes down the road with a monkey on her back, a toad on her head, and leading an ass.  As she walks, she wails, "Look at me.  I have a monkey on my back.  I have a toad on my head.  I have to lead an ass."

She thinks we care, but we don't.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Rat's Country: The party's over...

The party's over.  Move everything forward with a mental janitor's broom:  the paper cups, dirt, and streamers.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Rat's Country: I have to work hard...

I have to work hard to keep together this ragtag army I call myself.  Many days, I have no idea who is  in charge.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Rat's Country: My advisor, G., says writing is like knitting...

My advisor, G., says, "Yes.  keep writing in your journal, but pick a project and finish it.  Remember, when you knit, you want to be knitting something.  For God's sake, at least make a hat.  You can't just knit and purl mindlessly.  Project to project--do you understand?"

Monday, May 17, 2010

Favorite Quotes: A Sunday Thought for Monday...

"Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous..."

                                                                                                   Paul Hawkin

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Rat's Country: Metaphor for something...

...it's like being in a darkened room, say, a bar, and then walking into the sunlight, squinting and confused.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Rat's Country: If you can't sit still...

What do I know for sure about writing?  Writing requires the ability to sit for extended periods of time and on a regular basis.  Oh, and to keep the pen (or your fingers on the keyboard) moving while you are sitting...

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Rat's Country: Some people...

Some people are dampers, dampeners, downright wet blankets, and you smolder underneath.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Rat's Country: Remorse Code

Remorse code

When  a cupboard door slams shut, even a cup clacking on a saucer, I wince.  What did I do wrong?  Why is that person sending signals, a remorse code only I can decipher?

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Word Play: James Awakens in a Good Mood

James Awakens in a Good Mood

The callethump in James’ brain
rose and fell o’er his mental terrain.
Who was the bride?  Who was the groom?
Who was the clown with a red balloon?

Accustomed to eat his cereal
with thoughts sere and funereal,
why the epithalamium
in his venerable cranium?

Did he deserve unnerving joy?
Was he a lexographer’s toy
who could uncathect grumpiness
contemplating callethumpiness?

                                                            

Monday, April 26, 2010

Rat's Country: Bad voice day

Bad voice day:  "You should not be doing anything that I haven't given you the permission to do or that I'm not in charge of."

Monday, April 5, 2010

Rat's Country: Don't leave unattended places in your house


Don’t leave unattended places in your house where messes can accumulate, fires start, mice nest, bugs congregate.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Rat's Country: Ground squirrels

Ground squirrels.  They never do more than perch on the edge of their holes, then go beneath the earth to breed bad ideas.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Rat's Country: So much of her life is behind closed doors

So much of her life is behind closed doors that I am startled when she appears on the porch and says, "Do come in.  Please stay for lunch.  Have I told you about this wonderful place where I found old Hollywood sets?  What should I do with my hair?"

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Rat's Country: Puns intended (no small feat)

I am looking at my daughter's feet and they are similar to my feet.  My feet are similar to my mother's feet, but she did not invent these high-arched, lovely feet.  Her feat is that she can make us feel as though she is solely responsible.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Rat's Country: Usually, when I first sit at my desk to write

Usually, when I first sit at my desk to write, I don’t have anything to say, like the moment when concert pianist seats himself at the piano bench, flipping the tails of his tuxedo and poising his hands above the keys. 

I love that instant of tension, space, silence, before  his hands come down on the keys,  filling the concert hall with sound.  In that moment before he begins, he must trust that something will come.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Rat's Country: I will tell you what you are feeling

I will tell you what you are feeling.  That way I won't  be afraid that you might be feeling something I don't  understand.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Rat's Country: Note to self...

Note to self:  do not retreat into the comfort zone of conflict and alienation.  In other words, don't let miserable be your comfortable.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Rat's Country: It's raining...

It's raining.  I would like to lie on the sofa all day reading self-pity books, while someone else keeps the fire going.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Rat's Country: As soon as I set a goal...

As soon as I set a goal, I turn into two people, the one who sets the goal and the one who has to accomplish it:  stern parent and truculent child.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Rat's Country: Windshield wipers in the rain

Windshield wipers in the rain.  That's what it's like:  blurry, clear, blurry, clear.  Focus on the fraction of a second when you can see clearly.  That's how you get down the road.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Rat's Country: Foreshadowing


I feel as if I am inhabited by an old woman when I have to get up to pee at midnight:  the wide-legged stance and flat feet as I walk unsteadily in the dark towards the bathroom door.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Rat's Country: X sees herself as a constant source of self-congratulation...

X sees herself as a constant source of self-congratulation.  She claps for every move and keeps moving so she has something to applaud.  Performer and audience.  Not a bad strategy.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Rat's Country: Happiness is...(#)

Happiness is walking into a room scented with roses, lying on a couch reading a novel with sentences so beautifully made I want to rewrite the book in longhand.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Rat's Country: Candie has a great attitude...

Candie has a great attitude.  Instead of complaining about how domineering he has become, she says, "That's how precious I've become."

Monday, January 25, 2010

Rat's Country: "Validate yourself"

"Validate yourself."  A cliche.  Nevertheless, you must stamp your own passport, give yourself permission to travel.  Don't forget.  You must fill your own gas tank, especially when driving into new territory.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Favorite quotes: "Actually, she was an enthusiastic woman..."

"Actually, she was an enthusiastic woman with a highly honed sense of the absurd, who was affected by blasts of bleakness."
                                    From an article about Diane Arbus by Arthur Lubow in the New York Times Magazine, 2003
                             Another very favorite quote, as if bleakness were cold Arctic air.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Favorite quotes: "Even after the worst storm..."

"Even after the worst storm the birds sing and so should we.  God wants us to be happy."

                       Rose Kennedy was quoted as saying this.  She died at 104.  It's one of my very favorite quotes.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Favorite quotes: "Discipline is not a punishment...


“Discipline is not a punishment.  Discipline is how you get to where you want to go.  You can see it as a way of ordering your life.  Discipline is not a restriction, but an empowerment.”
                                                from Walking in Beauty by Richard Olney

Monday, January 11, 2010

Friday, January 8, 2010

Rat's Country: Hardest of all...

Hardest of all is to find the third way:  empathetic, connected, and loving; but not diminished or distorted by his or her needs.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Rat's Country: What if I could trust myself?

What if I could trust myself? What if--in my own way--I am wise, intuitive, have good sense about things, like the omniscient narrator of a George Eliot novel.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Rat's Country: I have labored in the soul's salt mines...


I have labored in the soul’s salt mines, the cold Siberian winters of the spirit, laboring in darkness, seeing silhouettes of trees, black and bare.  I have been the guard,  walking my own prison walls.  What a place for the soul to be.  I can remember, but I do not have to go back.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Rat's Country: Once, I began the New Year...

 Once,  I began the New Year wearing a cashmere sweater and reading a seed catalog:  luxury and hope.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Rat's Country: Thought for the New Year

"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.  And to make an end is to make a beginning."
                                                              T.S. Eliot