Tracing Quotations
Yogi Berra? J. F. Shaw Kennedy? Charles Lee? Punch Magazine? Clarence Day? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A comical remark about funeral attendance has been attributed to the baseball great Yogi Berra: Always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise they won’t go to yours. A simple interpretation seems to require ghosts to attend a future funeral. …
Continue reading “Always Go To Other People’s Funerals — Otherwise, They Won’t Come To Yours”
Sinclair Lewis? Mary Heaton Vorse? Felicia Gizycka? Robert Benchley? Douglas Fairbanks Jr.? Marianne Gingher? Stevie Cameron? Andrew Hudgins? Nora Roberts? Stephen King? Oliver Stone? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: An astonishingly simple stratagem has been recommended to anyone who wishes to become a famous author, playwright, screenwriter, or composer. The secret to success and productivity is …
Continue reading “Writing Is the Art of Applying the Seat of the Pants to the Seat of the Chair”
Isaac Asimov? John A. Keel? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Recently, I read a book called “The Mothman Prophecies” which discussed mysterious sightings of a human-sized moth-like creature in West Virginia in the 1960s. There are many ways to attempt to interpret bizarre and enigmatic visions. The book included an intriguing quotation attributed to the well-known …
Continue reading “It’s Not What You See That Is Suspect, But How You Interpret What You See”
Ernest Hemingway? Arnold Samuelson? Bernard Malamud? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The prose style of the famous author Ernest Hemingway was spare and direct, but to achieve that form he often worked through multiple drafts. A pungent remark about rewriting has been attributed to the Nobel Prize winner. Here are three versions: The first draft of …
Truman Capote? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The authors of The Beat Generation were an influential disaffected group whose works jolted the culture of 1950s America. The spontaneous prose technique employed by the central figure Jack Kerouac in the composition of his 1957 novel “On the Road” was acclaimed and disparaged. The most trenchant criticism reportedly …
Arnold J. Toynbee? Max Plowman? H. A. L. Fisher? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous historian Arnold J. Toynbee wrote a monumental 12-volume work titled “A Study of History” in which he delineated the trajectories of several major human civilizations. Surprisingly, a comically depreciatory definition of history is attributed to him. Here are two versions: …
Continue reading “History Is Just One Damn Thing after Another”
Oscar Hammerstein II? Dorothy Hammerstein? Leonard Lyons? Dear Quote Investigator: The division of credit between music composers and lyricists can be controversial. Some lyricists believe that their song writing skills are not given adequate respect. One vivid anecdote revealed the unhappiness of Dorothy Hammerstein who was the wife of the prominent Broadway song creator Oscar …
Continue reading “Lyricist Versus Composer: The Song “Ol’ Man River””
Sam Levenson? Oscar Levant? W. C. Fields? Helen Gorn Sutin? Dave Berg? Ann Landers? Erma Bombeck? Grace Kelly? Dear Quote Investigator: Many parents concur with a very funny quip that reverses the traditional notion of inheritance: Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids. This joke has been attributed to the newspaper columnist Erma …
Continue reading “Insanity Is Hereditary. You Can Get It from Your Children”
Abraham Lincoln? Artemus Ward? George Bernard Shaw? Max Beerbohm? Muriel Spark? Dear Quote Investigator: A popular anecdote asserts that Abraham Lincoln was obliged to listen to a prolix lecture about spiritualism by an enthusiastic friend. After the discourse was complete, Lincoln’s opinion was sought, and he replied with a humorously redundant non-committal statement designed to …
Continue reading “People Who Like This Sort of Thing Will Find This the Sort of Thing They Like”
George Bernard Shaw? Oscar Wilde? Irvin Cobb? Michel de Montaigne? John Brunner? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A very popular acerbic adage combines wisdom and wistfulness together with a modicum of jealousy: Youth is wasted on the young. These words have been attributed to two famous Irish wits: George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. Oddly, I …