Courses Quotes - Page 20

• Many writers struggle with exposition in their novels. Often they heap it on in large chunks of straight narrative. Back story – what happens before the novel opens – is especially troublesome. How can we give the essentials and avoid a mere information drop?
  Use dialogue. First, create a tension-filled scene, usually between two characters. Get them arguing, confronting each other. Then you can have the information appear in the natural course of things.

  James Scott Bell

  Struggle, Writing, Character

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• New York is a glamorous city, constituted mostly of nobodies. They crave the lights, and if they tell you differently, they're lying. Only dreamers come to New York. As a matter of course, few people have control of their lives. You live at the whim of your boss, your landlord, your grocer, the stranger, the judge, the bus driver, the mayor who won't let you smoke. On the other hand, you live at the whim of your whims, and that is the most exciting thing there is.

  Charlie LeDuff

  New York, Lying, Light

  Charlie LeDuff (2004). “Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts”, p.24, Penguin

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• We are many, many people and yet we are one. What we do today with our thinking, what we do tomorrow with our thoughts, what we do with our actions and our interactions with people determines the course of the universe itself. You are not powerless. You are not without power.

  Little Crow

  Thinking, People, Our Actions

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• Someone once said to me, 'Are you telling me that chair isn't real, that it's only thought?' I said 'Of course the chair is real. But it comes to you via Thought

  Sydney Banks

  Real, Chairs, Said

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• This stage in the life of the buzz is truly fabulous. It’s not even a buzz anymore. It’s a roar. The world opens up and everything’s yours right here, right now. You’ve probably heard the expression—All good things must come to an end. Well, this stage in the life of the buzz never heard anything close to that. This stage says, 'I will never end. I am indestructible. I will last fabulously forever.' And, of course, you believe it. To hell with tomorrow. To hell with all problems and barriers. Nothing matters but the Spectacular Now.

  Tim Tharp

  Believe, Expression, Forever

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• There are no rules. You can write a story, if you wish, with no conflict, no suspense, no beginning, middle or end. Of course, you have to be regarded as a genius to get away with it, and that's the hardest part - convincing everybody you're a genius.

  Fredric Brown

  Writing, Wish, Suspense

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• Justice is always naive and self-confident; believing that it will immediately win once recognized. That is the reason why the forces of Justice are so poorly organized. On the other hand, the Evil is cynic, sly and fantastically organized. It never ever has the illusion of the ability to stand on its own feet and to win in a fair competition. That is why it is ready to use any kind of means without hesitation. And of course it does - under the banners of the most noble ideas.

  Vladimir Bukovsky

  Believe, Mean, Winning

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• I don't want to become an ivory tower filmmaker. That sounds peculiar, but I want to be a mainstream filmmaker. I want the largest possible audience that I can find - but, of course, on my terms.

  Peter Greenaway

  Ivory Tower, Sound, Peculiar

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• They're both a bit cavalier about the whole thing at first; more than anything, they seem to think that it's going to be a lot of fun. Which it is, of course, but mostly in the way a plane crash is fun to reminisce about after you survive it.

  Josh Gates

  Fun, Thinking, Reminiscing

  Josh Gates (2011). “Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter”, p.86, Simon and Schuster

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• I once read about a meeting of economists who agreed that if their forecasts were 33 1/3 % correct, that was considered a high mark in their profession. Well, of course, I know you cannot invest in securities successfully with odds like that against you if you place dependence solely upon judgement as to the right securities to own and the right time or price to buy them. Then, too, I read somewhere about the man who described an economist as resembling ‘a professor of anatomy who was still a virgin.’

  Gerald M. Loeb

  Men, Odds, He Man

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• I think we are in a non-essentialist bubble—everything seems important—so of course nothing is.

  Greg McKeown

  Thinking, Important, Seems

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• When I was speaking about communicating, I meant that the listener - we have to reach the listener; otherwise, of course, you're writing the piece, as I say, only for the satisfaction of seeing it on the paper for yourself, and then it ends right there.

  Leo Ornstein

  Writing, Pieces, Paper

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• There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily

  George Washington

  Freedom, Truth, Knowledge

  George Washington (1852). “The life of General Washington: first president of the United States”, p.233

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• You have trust in what you think. If you splinter yourself and try to please everyone, you can’t. It’s important to stay the course. I don’t think I would have lasted this long if I’d listened to anyone. You have to listen somewhat and then put that to the side and know that what you do matters.

  Annie Leibovitz

  Thinking, Long, Important

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• Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort have created a biblically sound course that will not only motivate Christians; it will equip them to fulfill the Great Commission.

  Josh McDowell

  Christian, Rays, Sound

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• We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can't disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But, like those other fantasies that we can't disprove, we can say that God is very, very improbable.

  Richard Dawkins

  Flying, Monsters, Fantasy

  "Why There Almost Certainly Is No God" by Richard Dawkins, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 23, 2006.

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• Of course people are afraid. But honestly facing that fear, seeing it for what it is, is the only way of putting it to rest.

  Harvey Fierstein

  People, Way, Honestly

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• I mean, I spent 30 years in the world of physical perfection, right? I've known most of the world's most perfect physical specimens over the course of the last 30 years.

  Jim Lampley

  Mean, Years, Perfection

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• The decline of manners, the cynical pursuit without shame or restraint of personal advantage and of money characterizes our times, not without exceptions, of course, but more than we ought to be comfortable with.

  J. Irwin Miller

  Aggravation, Cynical, Shame

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• A new world will be won not by those who stand at a distance with their arms folded, but by those who are in the arena, whose garments are torn by storms and whose bodies are maimed in the course of the contest.

  Nelson Mandela

  Distance, Winning, People

  FaceBook post by Nelson Mandela from Aug 04, 2013

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• Please don't settle for happiness. It's not good enough. Of course you deserve it, but if that's all you have in mind - happiness - I want to suggest to you that personal success devoid of meaningfulness, free of a steady commitment to social justice - that's more than a barren life. It's a trivial one.

  Toni Morrison

  Commitment, Justice, Not Good Enough

  FaceBook post by Toni Morrison from Aug 23, 2011

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• We have to steer our true life’s course. Whatever your calling is in life! The whole purpose of being here is to figure out what that is as soon as possible, so you go about the business of being on track, of not being owned by what your mother said, what society said, whatever people think a woman is supposed to be when you can exceed other people’s expectations and be defined by your own!

  Oprah Winfrey

  Mother, Thinking, Expectations

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• Expressing thankfulness in advance is the way of all Masters. So do not wait for a thing to happen and then give thanks. Give thanks before it happens, and watch energies swirl! To thank God before something occurs is an act of extraordinary faith. And that, of course, is where the power comes from.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Giving, Waiting, Thank God

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• The thing of course, is to make yourself alive. Most people remain all of their lives in a stupor.

  Sherwood Anderson

  People, Alive

  Sherwood Anderson (1953). “Letters: selected and edited with an introd. and notes by Howard Mumford Jones, in association with Walter B. Rideout”

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• I'm not somebody that gets played a lot at parties and weddings. I mean, you know, you mention my name and you get an eye roll, until, of course, you're jumping off a bridge.

  Tori Amos

  Party, Mean, Eye

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