Wednesday

Jun. 11, 1997

But Once Upon a Very Young Time

by Thomas McGrath

WEDNESDAY 6/11

Today's Reading:"But Once Upon a Very Young Time" by Thomas McGrath from ECHOES INSIDE THE LABYRINTH, published by Thunder's Mouth Press.

In Hawaii, it's Kamehameha Day, honoring Hawaiian King Kamehameha I, who united the Hawaiian Islands into a single kingdom.

It was on this day in 1991 that the long-dormant volcano Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines, erupted violently, resulting in the cooling of the Earth's temperature by about one degree for the following five years.

It's the birthday of playwright, director and actor Athol Fugard, one of South Africa's leading playwrights (THE BLOOD KNOT; MASTER HAROLD), born in Middelburg, South Africa, on this day in 1932.

Author William Styron (LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS; Pulitzer Prize-winning THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER; SOPHIE'S CHOICE; TIDEWATER MORNING; THREE TALES FROM YOUTH) was born on this day in Newport News, Virginia, in 1925.

It's the birthday of English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins in Stratford, in 1844. He became a Jesuit priest and went to Ireland where he taught at the Royal University before dying from typhoid at the age of 44.

It's the birthday of first woman newspaper reporter, Anne Newport Royall, born near Baltimore on this day in 1769.

English playwright and poet Ben Jonson (EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR) was born on this day near London in 1572.

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