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Archives - November 2000

November 1, 2000

"Nobody becomes Tom Wolfe overnight, not even Tom Wolfe."

– William Zinsser, ON WRITING WELL, 1976

November 2, 2000

"We have the power to bore people long after we are dead."

– Sinclair Lewis, quoted in THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION

November 3, 2000

"All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with someone else."

– Mae West, 1967

November 4, 2000

"The advantage of poetry over life is that poetry, if it is sharp enough, may last."

– Louise Gluck, in THE AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW, 1993

November 5, 2000

"All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them."

– Isak Dinesen, in Hannah Arendt, THE HUMAN CONDITION, 1959

November 6, 2000

"Humor is a rubber sword
it allows you to make a point without drawing blood."

– Mary Hirsch, in VIEW FROM THE LOFT, 1994

November 7, 2000

"Women are young at politics, but they are old at suffering; soon they will learn that through politics they can prevent some kinds of suffering."

– Nancy Astor, MY TWO COUNTRIES, 1923

November 8, 2000

The factory of the future will have a man and a dog.  The man will feed the dog and the dog will make sure the man does not touch anything.

– Unknown

November 9, 2000

Literature is the orchestration of platitudes

– Thornton Wilder

November 10, 2000

If you lose, don't lose the lesson.

– Dahli Lama

November 11, 2000

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

– Henry David Thoreau

November 12, 2000

The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.

– Mary McLeod Bethune, Educator and Civil Rights Activist

November 13, 2000

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.

– Charles Bukowski

November 14, 2000

Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

– Plato

November 15, 2000

Bigamy is one wife too many. Monogamy is pretty much the same thing.

– Oscar Wilde

November 16, 2000

You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.

– Ziggy Marley

November 17, 2000

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

– T.S. Eliot

November 18, 2000

There is only one success--to be able to spend your life in your own way.

– Christopher Morley

November 19, 2000

When my enemies stop hissing, I shall know I'm slipping.

– Maria Callas

November 20, 2000

Life can only be understood backwards but must me lived forwards.

– Soren Kierkegaard

November 21, 2000

Power consists to a large extent in deciding what stories will be told.

– Carolyn Heilbrun

November 22, 2000

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.

– Leo Rosten

November 23, 2000

The wild turkey is to the Thanksgiving offering what the tiger is to the tabby: a creature that knows better than to trust a human.

– <em>The New York Times</em>

November 24, 2000

Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

– Laurence J. Peter

November 25, 2000

Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.

– W. H. Auden

November 26, 2000

I am not yet religious: I am only disillusioned with the irreligious.

– Mary Adams

November 27, 2000

The robb'd that smiles, steals something from the thief.

– William Shakespeare

November 28, 2000

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15.

– Ronald Reagan

November 29, 2000

If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at this school, I’ll promise not to believe everything he says happens at home.

– Anonymous

November 30, 2000

Everything human is pathetic.

– Mark Twain