“For better or worse, it is the commentator who has the last word.”— Vladimir Nabokov This observation from Vladimir Nabokov is spoken by one of the Russian-American novelist’s characters, and not a nice one, either…. Read More
“That’s what books are, they’re containers for memory. They’re containers for the stories of the past. It’s an artifact that allows you to communicate with the past… I would imagine most writers have this sense… Read More
“One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or… Read More
“The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.”— Adrienne Rich The poet Adrienne Rich had a long writing career and a… Read More
Oh, the poor em dash. Often overused by writers like me, it’s now become a symbol of cheating, a giveaway that someone had an AI like ChatGPT whip up an essay for them. Pity, because… Read More
“Briefing is not reading. In fact it is the antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it… Read More
“There has been, is, and always will be every conceivable type of person.”— E.M. Forster The British novelist’s astute observation was published decades after he wrote it, in the posthumous novel Maurice, arguably his most… Read More
“The guilty think all talk is of themselves.”— “Geoffrey Chaucer” The quote of the day is a well-known proverb from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, although of course that’s not how he wrote it … modern… Read More