Category Archives: Quotes

. . . Even If You’re Writing Rubbish . . .

~ Via Writer’s Write ~

So much easier said than done. Probably especially easier for those new to the craft. Those of us who have been at a while (and those of us who’ve also served as editors and dedicated work-shoppers) tend to have a more . . . I’ll just speak for myself as I have a more neurotic/OCD approach to writing fiction (nonfiction is not so bad). But I’m trying to curb that and I have at least taken the mental steps to writing free and clear of my usual obsessive-compulsive method of scrutinizing every word, comma and sentence as I write. I just have to put it in practice more. Not that I know first hand but I imagine it’s not much unlike a 12-step program. Heh.

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The Quotable Me

A creative mind never sleeps.  A creative soul is forever restless. – BLR, 5/13/15

Art is about bringing together disparate souls that would otherwise not ever come in contact with one another. It is in that instance that we all become a little less alone. – BLR, 7/28/2015

. . . the arts are a great coping tool for the many things that ail us. Art can be good for daily stress, mental health, exorcising personal demons, enlightening oneself on life and helping us better understand the world and understanding our place within it. – BLR, 11/20/18

Sometimes love comes at a price too great for one’s emotional bank account. — BLR, 11/22/2018

The sleeting view outside my office window.

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Warren Ellis on Fear – The Parental Kind

Warren Ellis was recently interviewed by THE COMICS JOURNAL via Q & A. It’s a great interview of the writer whose weekly newsletter ORBITAL OPERATIONS I read regularly. This particular excerpt I relate to rather well.

TCJ: What is one thing, in spite of all the energy you have in the face of everything being terrible, that you’re afraid of?

WE: Cancer. Climate change. Economic collapse. The rise of the nationalist right. And so on. You know, the same list as most other people. My daughter turns 23 this week, and I would like her to have a long life that doesn’t involve selling her organs for grain. Have a kid! You’ll be afraid of everything for the rest of your life.

‘Nuff said.

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Art Junkie

We have art so as not to perish from the truth.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Back in the early days of social media, and I mean way back to like 2002-03 when I was on Live Journal (and not yet on Friendster, then MySpace and later Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, WordPress and Tumbler — sheesh), I went by the handle of “Artjunkie”. It was fitting because that’s exactly what I was and still am today: a junkie for the arts.

My primary art jams are the literary arts (reading books and writing prose) and graphic literature (comic books and graphic novels) and, of course, music. Naturally, movies and television factor in as well, but Read! Write! Rock! is my mantra, they’re the activities I do most often in my spare time (wait, spare time exists?). I consume and create a lot art (although I hoard a lot of my own artistic creations). I’ve been writing fiction and nonfiction seriously for about 25 years and have been a musician/songwriter for 30 years as of this past Summer — the Summer of ’88 was when I started playing guitar to get the musical ball rolling. Now I’m a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist with a dozen local bands and solo projects behind me. [See About for publishing credits and My Music for selected streaming tunes.]

These days it seems all I want to do is consume and create art, my social life (and work life if I could) be damned! Sure, art is a great source of entertainment (and we’ve been in a golden age renaissance of television the last decade-and-a-half at least), but the arts are a great coping tool for the many things that ail us. Art can be good for daily stress, mental health, exorcising personal demons, enlightening oneself on life and helping us better understand the world and understanding our place within it.

The late great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is notable for saying that “Without music, life would be a mistake.” I wholeheartedly agree with that one.

In addition to the quote at the top about art, he also said:

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I’ll leave it at that.