“A good comedy can be written on a postcard.”
– Buster Keaton, quoted in The Life of Images by Charles Simic
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“And if you think you have a book evolving, now is the time to write the flap copy. The blurb, in fact. An author should never be too proud to write their own flap copy. Getting the heart and soul of a book into fewer than a hundred words helps you focus. More than half the skill of writing lies in tricking the book out of your own head.”
– Terry Pratchett, A Slip of the Keyboard
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How can I summarise my blog, Conversations With Quotations?
It is a record of my search for the tools and inspiration to help me keep going.
I am always looking for ways to understand what I carry around within me: memories, desires, fears and curiosities.
I seek, mostly through books, better ways to carry myself through the world.
There is no systematic approach to my reading nor any plan of what I will write. It is a meeting of compulsive reading and instinctive writing. There is very little revision. Most of my quotes are fed by books I have actually read. I do not haunt websites or social media accounts which spew out quotes. I like to find my quotations in context.
I like to see the juxtaposition, on the page, of two authors who never met in person. I feel like the host who is eager to catch snippets of conversation.
My thoughts are often not directly about the two quotes, rather they inspire an idea within me and I write it down.
Writing this blog is simple and satisfying. I love the constraints of this self imposed format.
I spent years dreaming of writing and never doing it. The more I write here, the clearer my writing goals are becoming.
The more I write, the less able I am to stop.
Conversations With Quotations 