Tracing Quotations
Edmund Wilson? Agatha Christie? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following acerbic remark has been used to dismiss the entire mystery genre as trivial and uninteresting: Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd? Would you please help me to find a citation for this remark? Reply from Quote Investigator: This interrogative statement is the title of …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?”
Rebecca West? Virginia Woolf? Nelson Goodman? Noam Chomsky? Vita Sackville-West? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Quantum mechanics has an interpretation that envisions many worlds. Also, modal logic has a semantics that features many possible worlds. Yet, the expansive idea of many universes or worlds has waggish detractors. One comical response to this plenteous philosophy states: …
Mary McCarthy? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Some writers carefully map out the full plot of a novel before putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. Other writers begin a story relying on an incomplete character sketch and a theme. The prominent novelist and critic Mary McCarthy said she felt suspense while writing and …
Agatha Christie? James Beasley Simpson? Joe Bushkin? Leonard Lyons? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Successful collaboration is difficult to achieve for many creators. The outstanding mystery writer Agatha Christie once referred to the difficulty of splitting royalties while explaining why she did not have coauthors. Would you please help me to find her remark? Reply …
Lord Byron? William Drummond? Marguerite Gardiner? Andrew Carnegie? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: My favorite quotation is a brilliant tripartite observation about rationality. Here are two versions: (1) Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. (2) He, who will not reason, is a …
Bertrand Russell? Sheldon? John Ruskin? Woods Hutchinson? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Cantankerous individuals who believe they are surrounded by an ignorant and unthinking public sometimes proclaim: This statement has been enhanced with a funny addition that reinvigorates the cliché. Here are two versions: The influential British intellectual Bertrand Russell has received credit for this …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Most People Would Die Sooner Than Think—In Fact, They Do So”
Henry James? Fred Rogers? Billy James? Leon Edel? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The prominent American literary figure Henry James apparently crafted an expression with a three-fold repetition of the phrase “be kind”. The influential children’s television personality Fred Rogers has been credited with a similar statement. Would you please explore this topic? Reply from …
Alfred Hitchcock? Leonard Lyons? François Truffaut? Steven Rattner? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Thrill master Alfred Hitchcock made a brilliant observation about storytelling requiring the excision of “dull bits” or “boring bits” from a narrative. Would you please help me to find a citation that presents the precise phrasing for this remark? Reply from Quote …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Drama Is Life with the Dull Bits Cut Out”
Hyman Rickover? Martin Vanbee? Eleanor Roosevelt? Harry Myers? Laurence J. Peter? Sam Levenson? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: These two simple adages have a long history: Some wit crafted a hilarious addendum for the second adage: This construction has been attributed to U.S. Navy Admiral Hyman G. …
H. L. Mencken? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: H. L. Mencken worked as a journalist and columnist for newspapers in Baltimore, Maryland for several decades. Yet, his candid assessment of dailies was remarkably harsh. Apparently, he believed that newspapers made the crazy crazier. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote …