All I Know...
Stripes
08/07/2005

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." ~Cyril Connolly

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I wanted to be a writer.
I dreamed of being a great journalist and getting my words out there for all the read and cherish.
Writing is one thing that I do know how to do. I do it rather well, or rather, I used to.
Senior year of high school, I was on top of the world. I was writing constantly. I was editor-in-chief of the newspaper and for once, I felt my life had direction. I started college and the head of my department even said I had true talent and that I could go far in the journalism field.
I was foolish though and let a boy convince me that I didn't want that career. He convinced me somehow that it wasn't prestigious enough or that I could never handle big city competitors. Later, I'd learn that the girl he'd replace me with, wanted to be an English major and it was around the time he met her...that he stopped believing in me.
Saddened and feeling like no one in the world believed in me, I gave up on my dream and I gave up on the one thing I knew.
I left journalism to go to computers. It's a constant game of failure though, as I am not really engineering material. I shalln't give up though. I can do this. Not only will I do well in my field, but I will revive my journalism ability and thrive with it, also.
I once was told the old saying that "to write well is to write what you know" and I now realize that what I know, is nothing.
Until I discover my words again, I shall now share with you some great quotes that I feel are very significant.
I believe these quotes speak for themselves but if you do not understand, ask and I shall explain why they are significant to me.
I shouldn't have to though :)
Enjoy!
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"The novel is an event in consciousness. Our aim isn't to copy actuality, but to modify and recreate our sense of it. The novelist is inviting the reader to watch a performance in his own brain." ~George Buchanan

"Writing is a crummy profession, but a good hobby." ~Paavo Haavikko

"In my experience, the best creative work is never done when one is unhappy." ~Albert Einstein

"When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand." ~Raymond Chandler

"I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite." ~G. K. Chesterton

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." ~Theodore Roosevelt

"Sex almost always disappoints me in novels. Everything can be said or done now, and that's what I often find: everything, a feeling of generality or dispersal. But in my experience, true sex is so particular, so peculiar to the person who yearns for it. Only he or she, and no one else, would desire so very much that very person under those circumstances. In fiction, I miss that sense of terrific specificity." ~Anatole Broyard

"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs, jolted by every pebble in the road." ~Henry Ward Beecher

"Half of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at." ~David Gerrold

"Show don't tell." - Henry James

"Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others." ~Amelia Earhart

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." ~Bill Cosby

"There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose." ~Kin Hubbard

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." ~Thomas Edison

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