(10 January 2005)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2005
Context: The writing of a novel or short story or poem or whatever should elevate the audience, not drag the writer down to some level beneath herself. And she — the author — should fight always to prevent that dragging down, especially when the only possible benefit of allowing it to happen is monetary.
“Whatever it is.. poem.. play, story.. it must hold attention.”
Poetry as Expression - The Writer April 1962
Prose
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Marianne Moore 59
American poet and writer 1887–1972Related quotes
Tolkien in Oxford (1968) http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/12237.shtml, a BBC 2 television documentary (at 21:49)
“Whoever survives a test, whatever it may be, must tell the story. That is his duty.”
Illusions
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
Source: The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Humane Literacy".
Language and Silence: Essays 1958-1966 (1967)
WPFW-FM inteview with Grace Cavalieri 1995/96 season
Good Morning Blues : The Autobiography of Count Basie (1985) by Count Basie and Albert Murray
“You must believe: a poem is a holy thing — a good poem, that is.”
Poetry and Craft (1965)
"Here Is New York," Holiday (1948); reprinted in Here is New York (1949)
Context: The subtlest change in New York is something people don't speak much about but that is in everyone's mind. The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sounds of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition.
All dwellers in cities must dwell with the stubborn fact of annihilation; in New York the fact is somewhat more concentrated because of the concentration of the city itself and because, of all targets, New York has a certain clear priority. In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer who might loose the lightning, New York must hold a steady, irresistible charm.