Monochromatic

“I’ve found my productive-writing-to-screwing-around ratio to be one to seven. So, for every eight-hour day of writing, there is only one good productive hour of work being done. The other seven hours are preparing for writing: pacing around the house, collapsing the cardboard boxes for recycling, reading the DVD extras pamphlet from the BBD Pride&Prejudice, getting snacks lined up for writing, and YouTubing toddlers who learned the “Single Ladies” dance. I know. Isn’t that horrible?”

—

Mindy Kaling from Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) 

Which made excellent reading material in the preparing and recovering from writing I have been doing for the last weeks. 

“It is often difficult to tell what is a fabulous story and what is the truth. But then, why does that matter? Truth is often irrelevant.”

—White Truffles In Winter (N. M. Kelby)

“A general limitation of the human mind is its imperfect ability to reconstruct past states of knowledge, or beliefs that have changed. Once you adopt a new view of the world (or any part of it), you immediately lose much of your ability to recall what you used to believe before your mind changed.”

—

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

(I could not help but bring it home to add to my giant plies when it came though the library… It accompanied me on six flights to and from Texas and I have forced several friends and family members to learn about intuition, heuristics, and bias.)

“The fact should be borne in mind that the state is a resort of thousands of invalids, and with that the mortality record is considerably increased by the deaths of those too far gone with consumption when they arrive to be benefitted by our salubrious atmosphere.”

—

W. W. Clayton

(Basically, if Minnesota winters kill you it is because you are a weakling. Salubrious, I tell you.)

“A woman who buried her nose in books was regarded with suspicion by the men.”

—Oliver Pötzsch, The Hangman’s Daughter (Which is one of the most enjoyable books I have read recently. The hangman is an excellent Sherlock-like fellow, coffee has just recently arrived in Bavaria, there is murder and buried treasure. What more could you want in a book?! I also read most of it while sitting in the park in the sun. Most excellent.)

“Nothing is too long or too short either if you have a true and interesting tale and what I call a ‘graphic’ writing style combined with educational aims.”

—Charles Portis, True Grit