Thursday, April 28, 2011

In Quotation Nation

I've been reading a lot of interviews with writers over the last couple of days. No real reason why, just something that's happened.

I've also been tasked with thinking about what the Commonwealth means (it's hard not to say this phrase without the Double Rainbow guy's voice in my head) for my sesh at the Auckland Writers Festival, but I find my thoughts are far from quotation-worthy.

Mostly just jokes about bronze medals and corgis.

Nothing like these excerpts from my Quotations Catalogue (incomplete)

#25 The tongue-in-cheek quotation

“The number of rooms in a fictional house should be inversely proportional to the years during which the couple living in that house enjoyed true happiness"  -- George Saunders (in an interview at Bomblog).

#51 The surely I read that wrong quotation

“I’m a perfectionist. I go to great lengths to get it all right. It’s the biggest challenge I face when I’m writing. If you’re confused about something in one of my books, you’ve just got to realize, Ellroy’s a master, and if I’m not following it, it’s my problem.” -- James Ellroy (Paris Review interview)

#67 The hells yeah quotation (depending on what mood you're in)

"A lot of writing nowadays is very intellectual. Very wussy. Correct, wussy, and too much rationalization. That was my experience at Iowa when I was teaching. Stories had simply become too small, they took such low altitude. Take a couple, and then someone would acknowledge something in a Kroger parking lot about their relationship and he’d get back in his car and drive on. People were not going for much. They were going for very limited American realism, which is a bore to me. I really want stories that are rippers in the old sense. Tales of high danger, high adventure, and high exploration. Tales that are as wonderful as frontier tales. I want more adventure." -- Barry Hannah (Paris Review interview)

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While I'm kind of pointing people in directions, I'll say that I'm loving Joan Fleming's new(ish) photo-poetry blog and hope it's a stayer.

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Playlist for a cold but-not-as-cold-as-the-last-two-days evening

2. 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' by Donovan
3. 'Halluncination Bomb' by Monster Magnet
4. 'Give Up and Go Away' by Strippers Union
5. 'Off He Goes' by Pearl Jam (earworming big time lately, dunno why)
6. 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' by The Animals
7. 'Quarantined' by At The Drive In
8. 'It's Easier' by John Grant
9. 'Solitude is Bliss' by Tame Impala


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Craig's fortnightly photo diary (first and last)

My brother (the real photographer), Raumati Beach

Shipwreck, Tora

Obligatory seagull

FIN

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