Sensational Sentences, Part V
When we read something that gives us pause or prompts us to read it again, this means that the words have done their job: They have moved us.
When we rave about an essay, article or book to a friend, we tend to point to the exact words that stopped us, held us or shook us. Usually it’s a sentence. Or just a phrase. Amazing when you think about the power contained in just a few words.
I’ve been collecting and blogging about sentences and phrases that stick for a decade now as if they were my own version of shells found at the beach. You can find those posts in the links attached.
Below are a few that I gathered just this year from a variety of random sources - famous people, not-so-famous people, writers I know, one writer’s mother (who was also a writer!). Some are about creative process. Some are about human nature. Some are wise and layered. Some made clever use of language. Some were just funny or quirky.
I just wanted to end this year on an inspiring literary note.
There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
The only problem with writing is that you have to write every word.
Aaron Cohen
We writers are the raw nerve of the universe.
Ursula Le Guin
There’s nothing new under the sun except your eye.
Eudora Welty
The same wind that seeks to blow out a fire can cause its spread.
Gil-Gilad, Lord of the Rings
One needs to have a waterproof, breathable heart.
David Barish
Quiet types are dangerous because you can make them up.
Sheri Reda
For those who like that sort of thing, that’s the sort of thing they like.
Florence Chanock Cohen
If you are numbing your misery, you are putting out the fire in you that is your fuel.
Glennon Doyle
(On the topic of hallucinogenics) I knew there was more going on than they were telling us.
Jerry Garcia
As much as anything could, music made me into the person my mother needed me to be, so that she could be the person she needed to be, in order to escape who she actually was.
Ruth Whippman
If you are lucky enough to have a perfect day, don’t let go of it. Bank it. Paint a picture of it. Hold onto it like it’s your d——.
Stella in “Cloudburst” (played by Olympia Dukakis)
For Sensational Sentences, Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4
Photo by Annie Spratt (Unsplash)
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“The Essay in Ten Types,” Story Studio Chicago, January 24
Temple Sholom Sunday Guest Scholar, January 29
Headliner Storyteller at Take Flight Spirits. Skokie Storytelling, February 16