Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Youth

“Youth is the only season for enjoyment, and the first twenty-five years of one’s life are worth all the rest of the longest life of man, even though these five and twenty be spent in penury and contempt, and the rest in the possession of wealth, honour, respectability, ay, and many of them in strength and health. . . .”
— George Borrow, The Romany Rye

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Why We Write

“If I knew myself better I wouldn't have to write books.”

— Sybille Bedford, quoted by Andrew Barrow

The Independent, May 23, 2004

Thursday, February 7, 2008

First Post

"As for the story itself it is true enough in its essentials. The sustained invention of a really telling lie demands a talent which I do not possess."
— Joseph Conrad, Tales of Unrest

"As to Karain, nothing could happen to him unless what happens to all—failure and death; but his quality was to appear clothed in the illusion of unavoidable success."
— Joseph Conrad, "Karain," Tales of Unrest