"There is no ideal length, but you develop a little interior gauge that tells you whether or not you're supporting the house or detracting from it. When a piece gets too long, the tension goes out of it. That wordÂ—tensionÂ—has an animal insistence for me. A piece of writing rises and falls with tension. The writer holds one end of the rope and the reader holds the other endÂ—is the rope slack, or is it tight? Does it matter to the reader what the next sentence is going to be?"

-- John Jeremiah Sullivan

#Fall Quotes #Writing Quotes #Animal Quotes

“Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer.”
“The railroad originally was as completely dissociated from steam propulsion as was the ship”

Source : John Moody, Gerhard Richard Lomer, Charles William Jefferys (1919). “The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States”
“First you will smile, and then you will cry -- don't say you haven't been warned.”
“When you don't have to depend upon your creative work for money, you'll never really have to compromise... Knowing that is hugely liberating as well as artistically clarifying... Being practical about where your money comes from means you can be romantic about your writing... I believe that a healthy society is one that supports its artists, but I also know that that privilege, of being only an artist, is afforded to just a small number. Most of us have to find something else - or live a highly disciplined life, which I'm not willing to do.”

Source : Interview with Alexis Cheung, believermag.com. November 20, 2017.
“The day of the daredevil reporter who refuses to see obstacles to getting the truth, and seeing it with his or her own eyes, seems to have died.”

Source : "Key quotes: Alastair Campbell" by Matthew Tempest and Press Association, www.theguardian.com. August 29, 2003.
“As a boy I dreamed that I could go on a boat with Jean Cousteau. But I was never given the opportunity. I am now giving that opportunity to young people around the world who would like to experience the beauty of nature.”

Source : Source: nicksmithphoto.wordpress.com
“We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us.”
“The body on the ground is nothing more than a shell, a husk, and I am filled with a sense of peace. Yes, I think. Yes. This is what I want to be. An instrument of mercy, not vengeance.”

You may also like:

Ben Lerner
Poet
David Foster Wallace
Novelist
Donald Antrim
Novelist
Geoff Dyer
Writer
Guy Davenport
Writer
Joan Didion
Author
Jonathan Lethem
Novelist
Lorin Stein
Editor
Wells Tower
Writer