"What a writer wants to do is not what he does."
— Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), author.
Email: It's Hot in Topeka
The mad musings of a working writer
"What a writer wants to do is not what he does."
— Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), author.
"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow."
— Lin Yutang (1895-1976), writer and inventor.
“A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”
— George Edward Moore (1873-1958), philosopher.
"I got to thinking about the point in every freelancer's life where he has to decide whether he wants to a), have a social life, and do art in his spare time; or b.), do art, and have a social life in his spare time. It has always seemed to me that if you have any hope of making a living as an artist — writer, musician, whatever — you absolutely must learn to tell people to leave you alone, and to mean it, and to eject them from your life if they don't respect that. This is necessary not because your job is more important than anyone else's — it isn't — but because a great many people will think of you as not having a job. 'Oh, how wonderful — you can work whenever you want to!' Well, yes, to a point, but generally 'whenever you want to' had better be most of the time, or else you won't have a roof over your head."
— Poppy Z. Brite (b. 1967), author.
"Writing is communication, not self-expression. Nobody in this world wants to read your diary except your mother."
— Richard Peck (b. 1934), novelist.
"I never want to see anyone, and I never want to go anywhere or do anything. I just want to write."
— P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975), author.
"Remember what Bilbo used to say: 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.'"
— Gandalf, via J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), author, teacher and traveler.
Bleah. Caught a mild cold. I travel to Prague tomorrow for 2-3 days, so I hope this doesn't get any worse. I used up all of my Airborne tablets earlier this week to stave off a scratchy throat when it began snowing."In a city brimming with appealing architecture and numerous religious monuments, the undisputed centrepiece is the Gothic St Martin's Cathedral, built into the city fortifications, with cannons embedded in its walls. It is most famous, however, for hosting the coronations of 19 monarchs and royal consorts of the Austro-Hungarian empire during the Turkish occupation of Hungary. Maximillian II was the first ruler crowned here in 1563, with Maria Theresa, in 1741, the most notable among the others.
A metre-high replica of the crown of St. Stephen sits atop the cathedral spire, recognising the building's status. Of the crown’s 300kg bulk, eight are of solid gold used to plate it. Every September, the Coronation Bratislava festival remembers the succession of rulers by means of a parade through the city following the path of bronze discs set into the street that indicates the route taken by the regal processions.
Construction on the building itself began in the 14th century, but the church wasn't consecrated until 1452 and even then building work was still not finished. That said, churches in Slovakia can rarely be regarded as complete until a familiar sequence of destruction and reconstruction has been observed throughout the middle ages, and St Martin's is no different. It has been ravaged by fire, lightning, earthquake and highway construction, as well as by the hands of domineering architects, eager to stamp their period motifs on the structure.
Originally the site of a Romanesque chapel, the present building has appeared as a Gothic and Baroque structure, before being re-Gothicised once again in the 19th century. Its foundations are currently undergoing restoration to compensate for the vibrations generated by the traffic passing over the nearby bridge. It's good to know where your Sk40 entrance fee is being spent." [Source].
"We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little."
— Anne Lamott (b. 1954), author and activist.