Where Books and Readers Come Together
The Master said, “The wise are never perplexed. The humane never suffer from vexation. The brave are never afraid.”
“You find that it is the thing he is writing about that is interesting. Not the way it is written.”
“I hope that a Wende for better times will take place.”
“The esthetic hero must have his opposition outside himself, not in himself.”
“Some of the major issues included in this self-help book are networking, making impressions, building trust, branding, goal setting and seeking help.”
“We may come, touch and go, from atoms and ifs but we’re presurely destined to be odd’s without ends.”
Some “secrets of success”: “rapport, empathy, persuasion, cooperation, and consensus building.”
Unlike hundreds of other writers and scholars, Pinker does correctly attribute (the oft-misattributed phrase) “Murder your darlings” to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch found in On the Art of Writing.
“You are the creator of reality, and yet you have no idea how you do it—the process is effortless… In ancient India, the Vedic sages declared Aham Brahmasmi, which can be translated as ‘I am the Universe’ or ‘I am everything.’ They arrived at this knowledge by diving deep into their own awareness.”
“HBS smacks of an ivory tower, cut off from the world outside.”
30 Principles to Live By
1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want
4. Become genuinely interested in other people
5. Smile
“On some subjects—for instance, writers’ workshops—one is tempted to pull punches or rest satisfied with oversimplified answers; but I’m assuming, as the primary reader of this book, an intensely serious beginning novelist who wants the strict truth (as I perceive it) for his life’s sake, so that he can plan his days of technique, theory, and attitude; and become as quickly and efficiently as possible a master of his craft” (p xxii).
“The whole process—sitting at your desk, focusing your mind like a laser beam, imagining something out of a blank horizon, creating a story, selecting the right words, one by one, keeping the whole flow of the story on track—requires far more energy, over a long period, than most people ever imagine.”
“Gaiman, the British writer, is a bit of a disappointment since much of his 2017 text has been found to closely resemble in structure and delivery (as you will soon see) many videos on Norse mythology posted on the video-sharing website called YouTube.”
“When I got to the sixth veil, I went over to the Shiva statue, simulated an orgasm, and cast myself to the ground while removing the seventh and final veil.”
