T.C. Boyle on the Necessity of Surprises

“There are always surprises. Life may be inveterately grim and the surprises disproportionately unpleasant, but it would be hardly worth living if there were no exceptions, no sunny days, no acts of random kindness.”

~ T.C. Boyle, (aka Tom Coraghessan Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948), The Tortilla Curtain

Source: GoodReads

Douglas Adams on Saving the World

“We don’t have to save the world. The world is big enough to look after itself. What we have to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it.”

~ Douglas Adams

Source: WikiQuote

Janni Simner on the Writer’s Journey

“You’re going to have setbacks, and you’re going to be okay. This isn’t your one big chance. It’s the start of a long and winding (and heartbreaking and glorious) journey.”

~ Janni Simner, Author of the post-apocalyptic Bones of Faerie trilogy and the Iceland-based fantasy Thief Eyes

Source: For new writers (and also for the rest of us), August 6, 2013

Lillian Hellman on Cynicism

“Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.”

~ Lillian Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984)

Source: A Quotation: Lillian Hellman

Neil Gaiman’s Wishes for Your Coming Year

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

~ Neil Gaiman

Source: GoodReads

Alison Headley on Starting Late

“In terms of being late or not starting at all, then it’s never too late.”

~ Alison Headley, Digital Preservation and Blogs, SXSW 2006

Source: Quotations Page

Theophile Gautier on Writers as Artists

“Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.”

~ Theophile Gautier

Source: BrainyQuote

Ève Curie on Peace at Any Price

“We discovered that peace at any price is no peace at all…that life at any price has no value whatever; that life is nothing without the privileges, the prides, the rights, the joys that make it worth living and also worth giving…and that there is something more hideous, more atrocious than war or than death; and that is to live in fear.”

~ Ève Curie (born Ève Denise Curie Labouisse, December 6, 1904 – October 22, 2007)

Source: GoodReads

Joseph Conrad on His Dislike of Work

“I don’t like work–no man does–but I like what is in the work–the chance to find yourself. Your own reality–for yourself not for others–what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.”

~ Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad ‪Nałęcz‬ Korzeniowski, 3 December 1857  – 3 August 1924)

Source: GoodReads

Theodora Goss on People and Adventures

‎”I think there are people who don’t have adventures, and people who have adventures, and (rarest of all) people who are adventures.”

~ Theodora Goss

Source: Theodora Goss on Facebook