Tuesday

Nov. 25, 1997

Do the Others Speack of Me Mockingly, Maliciously?

by Delmore Schwartz

TUESDAY  11/25

Today's Reading:  "Do the Others Speak of Me Mockingly, Maliciously?" by Delmore Schwartz from SELECTED POEMS:  SUMMER KNOWLEDGE, published by New Directions.

Playwright Shelagh Delaney, whose best known play, A TASTE OF HONEY, was written when she was 18, was born in Lancashire, England, 1939.

Baseball great Joe DiMaggio, known as "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was born in Martinez, California, in 1914.

Physician and author Lewis Thomas (THE LIVES OF A CELL) was born in Flushing, New York, 1913.

Choreographer Alwin Nikolais was born in Southington, Connecticut, 1910.

Composer Virgil Thomson, best known for his two operas (text by Gertrude Stein) FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS and THE MOTHER OF US ALL, was born in Kansas City, 1896.  "The way to write American music is simple.  All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish."

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