William Thomas Beckford quotes

“I fear I shall never be...good for anything in this world, but composing airs, building towers, forming gardens, collecting old Japan, and writing a journey to China or the Moon.”
-- William Thomas Beckford

#Writing Quotes #Moon Quotes #Journey Quotes

“[Vathek] has, in parts, been called, but to some judgments, never is, dull: it is certainly in parts, grotesque, extravagant and even nasty. But Beckford could plead sufficient "local colour" for it, and a contrast, again almost Shakespearean, between the flickering farce atrocities of the beginning and the sombre magnificence of the end. Beckford's claims, in fact, rest on the half-score or even half-dozen pages towards the end: but these pages are hard to parallel in the later literature of prose fiction.”
-- William Thomas Beckford

#Fiction Quotes #Half Quotes #Literature Quotes

“It came about as follows: over the years when I was involved in dianetics, I wrote the beginnings of many stories. I would get an idea, and then write the beginning, and then never touch it again.”

“The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite.”

Source : A. J. Liebling (2005). “Just Enough Liebling: Classic Work by the Legendary New Yorker Writer”, p.27, Macmillan

“If the first requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite, the second is to put in your apprenticeship as a feeder when you have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference of the total.”

“The only way to write is well and how you do it is your own damn business.”

“Oh what a wonderful soul so bright inside you. Got power to heal the sun’s broken heart, power to restore the moon’s vision too.”

Source : Aberjhani (2014). “Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry”, p.66, Lulu.com

“When you look at the Moon, you think, ‘I’m really small. What are my problems?’ It sets things into perspective. We should all look at the Moon a bit more often.”

“Baseball is about homecoming. It is a journey by theft and strength, guile and speed, out around first to the far island of second, where foes lurk in the reefs and the green sea suddenly grows deeper, then to turn sharply, skimming the shallows, making for a shore that will show a friendly face, a color, a familiar language and, at third, to proceed, no longer by paths indirect but straight, to home.”

Source : A. Bartlett Giamatti (1998). “A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti”, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

“I have known men to hazard their fortunes, go long journeys halfway about the world, forget friendships, even lie, cheat, and steal, all for the gain of a book.”

“The getting out of doors is the greatest part of the journey.”

Source : Abraham Cowley, Thomas Sprat (1710). “The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley ...: Consisting of Those which Were Formerly Printed, and Those which He Design'd for the Press, Publish'd Out of the Author's Original Copies ; with The Cutter of Coleman-street”, p.179

“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains.”