In this excerpt from Roald Dahl’s Boy, his mother asks if he wants to go to Oxford or Cambridge. “No, thank you,” I said. “I want to go straight from school to work for a company that will send me to wonderful faraway places like Africa or China.” You must remember that there was virtually [...]
Also tagged Roald DahlIn the following excerpt from Roald Dahl’s Boy, he’s left public school at 18 to take a job with Shell Oil company. He is taking their internal training courses and is learning the business. …[E]very morning, six days a week, Saturdays included, I would dress neatly in a sombre grey suit, have breakfast at seven [...]
Also tagged common, Roald DahlFrom the final Hold this Thought broadcast: “In East of Eden, John Steinbeck writes: ‘A child may ask, “What is the world’s story about?” And a grown man or woman may wonder, “What way will the world go? How does it end and, while we’re at it, what’s the story about?” I believe that there [...]
Also taggedBy then, the veterans had developed an informal set of rules for themselves: Take the craft seriously ([Judi] Dench: “deadly”). Don’t take yourself seriously ([Patrick] Stewart: “That’s death to creativity”). Never think you know it all (Dench: “Absolutely fatal”). Ian McKellen: The Player – TIME
Also taggedA few years ago, I read and enjoyed Alice W. Flaherty’s memoir, The Midnight Disease. Suffering from postpartum depression after the death of her newborn child, she began experiencing hypergraphia — the uncontrollable urge to write. She filled pages and pages with her writing, and couldn’t stop — the opposite of writer’s block. Flaherty is [...]
Also tagged Writing