Sunday

Nov. 9, 1997

I Remember

by Anne Sexton

SUNDAY 11/9

Today's Reading: "I Remember" by Anne Sexton from THE COMPLETE POEMSOF ANNE SEXTON, published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

The Berlin Wall was opened on this day in 1898, after dividing the German capital for 28 years.

It's the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938 when Nazis destroyed thousands of Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues throughout Germany.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anne Sexton was born in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1928.

Photographer Robert Frank was born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1924.

Poet, novelist, and playwright James Schuyler ("The Morning of the Poem") was born in Chicago in 1923.

Actor and comedian Ed Wynn, often billed as "The Perfect Fool," was born in Philadelphia in 1886.

Architect Stanford White, whose major designs include Madison Square Garden and Washington Arch, was born in New York City in 1853.

Russian author Ivan Turgenev, best known for his novel FATHERS AND SONS and the play A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY, was born in Orel, Russia, in 1818.

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