Thursday Thirteen #13

Thirteen Quotes (Mostly About Writing) In the spirit of National Novel Writing Month: 1. Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. -- Gene Fowler (Tru dat, Yo!) 2. Start slow and taper off. -- Walt Stack (I'm really good at this one.) 3. Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them. -- R. Buckminster Fuller (It's nice to know I once had potential.) 4. The right to write badly was the privilege we widely used. -- Isaac Babel (This is my personal motto during NaNoWriMo.) 5. Good resolutions are like babies crying in church. They should be carried out immediately. -- Charles M. Sheldon (Charles lived and died before cell phones and pagers.) 6. We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day, or in the red fire on a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nourish them through bad days until they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true. -- Woodrow Wilson (Woodrow was a big believer in diplomacy and helped form the League of Nations, a precursor to the United Nations, and we've seen how that turned out, but this quote on an individual's potential to become what he dreams of is one of my all time faves. I dream of writing a lot more than I presently do.) 7. Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. -- Theodore Roosevelt (I set myself up for failure, usually before I can get a word down on paper, or into the computer.) 8. Every writer I know has trouble writing. -- Joseph Heller (This one has always been strangely reassuring to me.) 9. The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. -- Robert Cromier 10. Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. -- E.L. Doctorow (This is the sum total of my big plans for succeeding at NaNoWriMo.) 11. There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes. -- William Makepeace Thackeray (Man, I sure hope so.) 12. Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book. - Cicero (106-43 B.C.) (I love this one, especially when you think about when it was written.) 13. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone. - Mark Twain, on Jane Austen (This one isn't meaningful, it's just plain ol' funny.) The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!