Not To Like Ice Cream Is To

I Have Myself Always Been Terrified Of Plagiarism - Of Being Accused Of It, That Is. Every Writer Is A Thief, Though Some Of Us Are More Clever Than Others At Disguising Our Robberies. The Reason Writers Are Such Slow Readers Is That We Are Ceaselessly Searching For Things We Can Steal And Then Pass Off As Our Own: A Natty Bit Of Syntax, A Seamless Transition, A Metaphor That Jumps To Its Target Like An Arrow Shot From An Aluminum Crossbow.

I Was Recently Asked What It Takes To Become A Writer. Three Things, I Answered: First, One Must Cultivate Incompetence At Almost Every Other Form Of Profitable Work. This Must Be Accompanied, Second, By A Haughty Contempt For All The Forms Of Work That One Has Established One Cannot Do. To These Two Must Be Joined, Third, The Nuttiness To Believe That Other People Can Be Made To Care About Your Opinions And Views And Be Charmed By The Way You State Them. Incompetence, Contempt, Lunacy—once You Have These In Place, You Are Set To Go.

Many Moons Ago Dictionaries Of Quotations May Have Been Less Needed Than They Are Today. In Those Good/bad Old Days, People Walked Around With Entire Poems And All The Shakespearean Soliloquies In Their Heads.

By The Way, The Secret Of Speaking French Is Confidence. Whether You Are Right Or Wrong, You Don't Hesitate.

We Who Are Quotatious Are Never Truly Alone, But Always Hear The Cheerful Flow Of Remarks Made By Dead Writers So Much More Intelligent Than We.