Tuesday

Feb. 18, 1997

Don't Look for the Silver Lining, Just Wait for It

by Ogden Nash

TUESDAY 2/18

Today's Reading:"Don't Look for the Silver Lining, Just Wait for It" by Ogden Nash from VERSES FROM 1929 ON, published by Little, Brown Co.

Today would have been the 63rd birthday of poet Audre Lorde, born in New York City on this day in 1934.

Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize winning author Toni Morrison (THE BLUEST EYES; BELOVED) was born on this day in Lorain, Ohio, in 1931.

Spy writer Len Deighton (THE IPCRESS FILE) was born on this day in London in 1929.

Writer of the American West, Wallace Stegner, whose novel ANGLE OF REPOSE won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize, was born on this day in Lake Mills, Iowa, 1909.

Mark Twain's book THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN was published on this day in New York in 1885.

It's the birthday of Yiddish writer Shalom Aleichem, "the Jewish Mark Twain," born on this day in Pereyaslav, Russia, 1859.

Glassware artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany, who developed a new type of glass he called "Favrile," was born in New York City on this day in 1848.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

«

»

  • “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams
  • “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler
  • “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt
  • “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman
  • “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov
  • “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron
  • “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
  • “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick
  • “Writing is a failure. Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell
  • “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote
  • “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams
  • “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch
  • “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao
  • “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell
  • “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham
Current Faves - Learn more about poets featured frequently on the show