Saturday

Sep. 27, 1997

O Cheese

by Donald Hall

SATURDAY 9/27

Today's Reading: "O Cheese" by Donald Hall from OLD AND NEW POEMS, published by Ticknor and Fields (1990).

Today is the Feast Day of French priest, Saint Vincent de Paul, born in 1581 and later captured by Barbary pirates and held as a slave until his escape in 1607.

The Norskedalen Threshing Bee begins today in Coon Valley, Wisconsin.

September Fest starts today at DeSoto Caverns Park, near Childersburg, Alabama.

The 46th annual Tri-State Band Festival begins today in Luverne, Minnesota.

Bebop trumpeter Red Rodney was born in Philadelphia in 1927.

Bebop pianist Bud Powell, who developed a jazz piano style imitated by others for the next 20 years, was born in New York City in 1924.

Novelist Louis Auchincloss, author of THE HOUSE OF FIVE TALENTS, PORTRAIT IN BROWNSTONE and THE EMBEZZLER, was born in Lawrence, Long Island, New York, in 1917.

Songwriter Vincent Youmans, nicknamed 'Millie' and best known for musical scores such as NO, NO, NANETTE, HIT THE DECK, and FLYING DOWN TO RIO, was born in New York City in 1898.

American caricaturist Thomas Nast, creator of the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant, was born in Ludwig, Bavaria, in 1840.

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