Category Archives: Commonplace Book

“a new theatre is coming”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“We must remember that a new theatre is coming after the war with a completely new criticism, thank God. The singular figures always stand a good chance when there are sweeping changes. Keep your ear to the ground and concentrate … Continue reading →

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“its multiplicity of forms and forces”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“You must learn now, that the important lesson – as long as you have your health – is that the divide is not between the servants and the served, between the leisured and the workers, but between those who are … Continue reading →

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Humility

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“Don’t be humble, son. You’re not that good.” – David Lee Roth’s father to his son

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“what is right”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“Just keep on writing. It is remarkable how one begins to know what is right.” – Editor John Rood to Tennessee Williams, March 22, 1935

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Boredom

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“I write at high speed because boredom is bad for my health.” – Noel Coward

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“detesting everything appertaining to Oscar Wilde”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“You must give up detesting everything appertaining to Oscar Wilde or to anyone else. The critic’s first duty is to admit, with absolute respect, the right of every man to his own style.” – George Bernard Shaw to R.E. Golding … Continue reading →

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Just Cause

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publication.” – Fran Leibowitz

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Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Carlyle

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“It was good of God to let [Thomas] Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle marry one another and so make only two people miserable instead of four.” – Samuel Butler

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“as good a model”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“All I really knew about what [Harold] Ross wished me to write was that it must be precisely accurate, highly personal, colorful, and ocularly descriptive; and that for sentence style, Gibbon was as good a model as I could bring … Continue reading →

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Autobiography

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“I’m writing my third autobiography … the other two were premature.” – Louis Untermeyer on his 90th birthday

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“For my part I keep the Commandments.”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“For my part I keep the Commandments. I love my neighbour as my selfe, and to avoid Coveting my neighbour’s wife I desire to be coveted by her, which you know is quite another thing.” – William Congreve, letter, Sept. … Continue reading →

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Playing Shakespeare

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“Play to the lines, through the lines, but never between the lines. There simply isn’t time for it.” – George Bernard Shaw to actress Ellen Terry on performing Shakespeare, 1896

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Fifteen Years

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.” – Robert Benchley

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Understanding

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“Well, I hope they understand one another – nobody else would.” – Wordsworth, 1846 – musing on the marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning

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“the great healing chapter of the brothers Karamazov”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“[I have been] weeping steadily because once again I had come to the great healing chapter of the brothers Karamazov. It always chokes me up and fills me with a love of mankind which sometimes lasts till noon of the … Continue reading →

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Edits

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“You never cut anything out of a book you regret later.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald to Thomas Wolfe who was struggling with revisions at the time

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“he could not bear young girls”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“William Hazlitt owned that he could not bear young girls; they drove him mad. So I took him home to my old nurse, where he recovered perfect tranquility.” – Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth, June 26, 1806

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“… considering how well they sell.”

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“Well, Jim, I haven’t read any of your books but I’ll have to someday because they must be good considering how well they sell.” – Nora Joyce to her husband James, 1940

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Agreement

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“I quite agree with you, sir, but what can two do against so many?” – George Bernard Shaw, 1894. Arms and the Man opened on April 21, and when the curtain fell, there were unanimous cheers. Shaw came out to … Continue reading →

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Well, That Clears That Up

Posted on November 19, 2009 by sheila

“No it is not.” – Oliver Goldsmith on his deathbed – answering the question if his “mind was at ease” – 1774

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