Giving yourself your word to do something ought to be no less sacred than giving your word to others.
-Andre Gide
Category: Giving Your Word(s): On Writing and Talking
Giving Your Word(s): On Writing and Talking #2
Letter-writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.
-George Gordon, Lord Byron
How do you enjoy “good company” when you write a letter to someone? Does a telephone conversation combine “solitude with good company”? What advantage does letter writing have over telephoning?
Giving Your Word(s): On Writing and Talking #2
Letter-writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.
-George Gordon, Lord Byron
How do you enjoy “good company” when you write a letter to someone? Does a telephone conversation combine “solitude with good company”? What advantage does letter writing have over telephoning?
Giving Your Word(s): On Writing and Talking #3
… One can never be alone enough when one writes… there can never be enough silence when one writes… even night is not night enough.
-Franz Kafka
Giving Your Word(s): On Writing and Talking #4
If you can’t write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don’t have a clear idea.
-David Belasco
State Mr. Belasco’s thought in another way, beginning with “A clear idea…” Have you ever discovered, through writing or talking that you hadn’t worked out an idea enough to express it clearly? Explain that experience (or make up one) using exactly 25 words.
Giving Your Word(s): On Writing and Talking #5
Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.
-Gene Fowler
If you can’t annoy somebody, there is very little point in writing.
-Kinsley Amis
What is writing like for you? Agony? Fun? Like a confidential friend who helps you sort out thoughts and feelings? Something you do adequately enough but joylessly? A game in which you try to ensnare or trick your reader?
Giving Your Word(s): On Writing and Talking #6
…Words are more powerful than perhaps anyone suspects, and once deeply engraved in a child’s mind, they are not easily eradicated.
-May Sarton
Giving Your Word(s): On Writing and Talking #7
Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it becomes to find anything to say.
-Samuel Johnson
Has anyone ever punished you with the “silent treatment”? How did that make you feel? What is the silent treatment intended to do to its “victim”?
Giving Your Word(s): On Writing and Talking #8
Language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move to stars to pity.
-Gustave Flaubert
Language sometimes fails us when we try to express deep feelings. Words can’t match the power of our emotions. When this happens, what other ways can we try to express ourselves? What advantages can these ways have over language?