Wednesday

Mar. 12, 1997

For My Daughter's 20th Birthday

by Walter Lowenfel

WEDNESDAY 3/12

Today's Reading: "For My Daughter's 20th Birthday" by Walter Lowenfel from SOME DEATHS, published by Jonathan Williams.

It was on this day in 1789 that the United States Post Office was officially established.

It's the birthday of Adolph Simon Ochs, founder of the NEW YORK TIMES, born in Cincinnati in 1858.

Juliet Low founded the Girl Scouts on this day in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia.

It's the birthday of author Jack Kerouac (ON THE ROAD), born in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1922.

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee (THE AMERICAN DREAM; WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLF?; THREE TALL WOMEN) was born on this day in Virginia, 1928.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the first of his Sunday evening fireside chats to the American people in 1933.

Diarist Anne Frank died on this day in 1945 in a German concentration camp.

It's the birthday of poet and memoirist Patricia Hampl (A ROMANTIC EDUCATION; VIRGIN TIME), born on this day in Saint Paul in 1946.

Today marks the anniversary of the ordination of women priests by the Church of England in 1994.

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