Tracing Quotations
Bernard Malamud? Albert Camus? Harris Wofford? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Having a grand mission to achieve with your life helps to generate a powerful motivational force. Apparently, one scribe asserted that: The purpose of the writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself. This remark has been credited to the famous existential philosopher Albert Camus …
Continue reading “The Purpose of the Writer Is To Keep Civilization from Destroying Itself”
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 …
Pierre-Auguste Renoir? Jean Renoir? Ōe Kenzaburō? Jeanette Winterson? D. H. Lawrence? Bernard Malamud? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The master painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir is my favorite Impressionist artist. For many years he has been credited with the following outrageous facetious quotation: I paint with my prick. Recently, I was surprised to discover that the Oxford Dictionary …