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A Writer Prepares QUOTES

A Writer Prepares QUOTES

1 " While at SMLA, I wrote a science fiction short-short called “Make A Prison.” It worked its way all the way down to the very bottom of the S-F food chain, finally selling to Bob Lowndes at Original Science Fiction Stories for a half cent a word, then wound up in Judith Merril’s prestigious annual anthology. I was elated—but I never wrote another piece of science fiction. "

― Lawrence Block , A Writer Prepares

2 " Milland went on to other things, but his picture graced the cover of Markham: The Case of the Pornographic Photos, which is a notably clunky title and subtitle. "

― Lawrence Block , A Writer Prepares

3 " And what, after all, did the reading time amount to? Before long I learned to read a book-length manuscript in 15 or 20 minutes. I would focus on the center of the page, and my eyes would not move as I turned the pages. By the time I was done, I would have absorbed enough of the sense of the story to write my report. I wouldn’t retain what I’d read, and would have forgotten everything about it an hour after I’d written my report, but I considered that a definite plus. Who wanted to remember this crap? "

― Lawrence Block , A Writer Prepares

4 " I was struck by the way so many of our fee clients combed the thesaurus for synonyms for “said,” and compounded the felony by tacking on an adverbial modifier. It weakened their dialogue considerably. "

― Lawrence Block , A Writer Prepares

5 " The Ballad of the IRT,” about a heroic homeward-bound Brooklyn shipping clerk beheaded by a closing subway door, wound up on Dave Van Ronk’s second Folkways album. "

― Lawrence Block , A Writer Prepares

6 " When Terry Zobeck was working away at my bibliography, A Trawl Among the Shelves, I kept recalling books and stories and articles of mine that had slipped my mind, and reporting what I could recall; Terry, apparently indefatigable, would scour the internet until he came up with a copy of the new discovery, add it to his collection, and write it up for the bibliography. "

― Lawrence Block , A Writer Prepares

7 " Don and I took Bill Coons and made a writer out of him. "

― Lawrence Block , A Writer Prepares

8 " Beacon’s leading light, one Orrie Hitt. I "

― Lawrence Block , A Writer Prepares

9 " If today is a consummation devoutly to be wished, how can I regret anything that helped bring it into being? "

― Lawrence Block , A Writer Prepares