"Dr James Pennebaker, though, defies expectations. A renowned researcher, author, and chair of the psychology department at the University of Texas at Austin, he blends down-to-earth bonhomie with a taste for Lanesborough Hotel martinis, and hones his brilliant mind with long-distance running."
Just do the things you love. Do what turns you on, say what you wish somebody else would say.
Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times is my new literary crush. She writes acerbic, funny, insightful things about language and its (mis)-uses. Think George Orwell's 'Politics and the English Language' for the 21st century.
The problem with looking for artistic validation in unhappiness, though, is that only the unhappiness is guaranteed; the art is still up to you.
You can find your identity in the damage that’s been done to you. Very, very dangerous. You find your identity in your wounds, in your scars, in the places where you’ve been beat up and you turn them into a medal. We all wear the things we’ve survived with some honour, but the real honour… [Read more…]
I’m a little bit hooked on Flavorwire – they turn up some amazing, inspiring creative content. Like this list of Henry Miller’s tips on how to be a writer. COMMANDMENTS 1. Work on one thing at a time until finished. 2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.” 3.… [Read more…]
She is the… greatest. The inimitable Patti Smith has been busy of late and has new books out: Woolgathering and The Coral Sea. This fantastic quote introduces an earlier poetry collection, Witt: These ravings, observations, etc come from one who, beyond vows, is without mother, gender, or country who attempts to bleed from the word… [Read more…]
Portinatx to Sant Joan, Ibiza, Spain Hotels cling to the cliffs at Portinatx like acrylic nails, a perfect backdrop to sunburnt kids and beery parents. A small brown sign points the way out: Sant Joan. Sharp right, down-shift. The road lifts you above the roofs of the holiday apartments and turns its back on the… [Read more…]
Needing a Business Case for Reading Novels is an alien – and slightly depressing – concept. Nevertheless, any case for reading is a good one and Anne Kreamer’s argument that novel-reading can boost workplace fortunes by improving people’s ability to relate to others is admirably lucid. Her list of suggested reading is unfamiliar, apart from… [Read more…]
The quote below is an excerpt from A Man Without A Country — a diamond of a book by the inimitable Kurt Vonnegut. To be as wise, incensed and articulate as Vonnegut is here (age 83) is surely one definition of success. If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don’t have the… [Read more…]
March 7, 2012
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