Potent Quotes

[clearspira]

A thread for your favorite quotes that didn't get into your sig. I'll start with one on writing, which I am really feeling right now.

Writing a novel— actually picking the words and filling in paragraphs— is a tremendous pain in the ass. Now that TV’s so good and the Internet is an endless forest of distraction, it’s damn near impossible. That should be taken into account when ranking the all-time greats. Somebody like Charles Dickens, for example, who had nothing better to do except eat mutton and attend public hangings, should get very little credit.

― Steve Hely, How I Became a Famous Novelist

I don't get it. Is he basically saying that he has no self-control at all? And is that a genuine insult against Dickens? Because considering I have never heard of this guy at all, I would say that him insulting one of literature's all time greats is pretty rich.

Unless he got down to specifics, I don't see it necessarily as a personal insult to Dickens as a writer. Can you elaborate or pinpoint which passage carries with it an inference regarding self control?

I get what the guy is talking about, and I do have thoughts on transformative convention, but it is kinda amusing. For what it's worth, he does produce Veep, which is a considerable comeback for Julia Dreyfus.

Self control - the ability to just turn the TV off and get to work.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

A thread for your favorite quotes that didn't get into your sig. I'll start with one on writing, which I am really feeling right now.

Writing a novel— actually picking the words and filling in paragraphs— is a tremendous pain in the ass. Now that TV’s so good and the Internet is an endless forest of distraction, it’s damn near impossible. That should be taken into account when ranking the all-time greats. Somebody like Charles Dickens, for example, who had nothing better to do except eat mutton and attend public hangings, should get very little credit.

― Steve Hely, How I Became a Famous Novelist

I don't get it. Is he basically saying that he has no self-control at all? And is that a genuine insult against Dickens? Because considering I have never heard of this guy at all, I would say that him insulting one of literature's all time greats is pretty rich.

Unless he got down to specifics, I don't see it necessarily as a personal insult to Dickens as a writer. Can you elaborate or pinpoint which passage carries with it an inference regarding self control?

I get what the guy is talking about, and I do have thoughts on transformative convention, but it is kinda amusing. For what it's worth, he does produce Veep, which is a considerable comeback for Julia Dreyfus.

Self control - the ability to just turn the TV off and get to work.

Ah. I didn't take it as his ability to write something so much as his ability to craft something that connects to his readership.

What he's saying also though seems to infer that the bar has been raised somehow, as if to say that it was easy to write when everything was dreary as shit, in which case I don't think is very fair or at least pertinent.

[TGLS]

Donkey Kong Country is truly perfect. If you do not get this amazing new generation of Donkey Kong madness, you are stupid. Yes I know "that's insulting" but it's also true.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Life is good, health is good, beauty and happiness and fun and laughter and challenge and learning are good. This does not change for arbitrarily large amounts of life and beauty.

The president is an important guest for us to you know, I can't let him go.
That makes me want to get him back even more!

ninja star + chess + watermelon + sand = swimsuit
I need to bring a banana with me cause... it makes me immortal if I get shot. My teddy bear can find pieces of a screwdriver but it is useless without fish.

With enemies you know where they stand, but with neutrals? Who knows!

If you’re concerned about people dying because of the energy that you’re producing, nuclear power strikes me as in the moment the safest form of energy there is.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Donkey Kong Country is truly perfect. If you do not get this amazing new generation of Donkey Kong madness, you are stupid. Yes I know "that's insulting" but it's also true.

I've always had higher regard for the second game. Weirdly though I haven't really had any encounters with people who hold the first with higher. Not as much as I'd expect by this point in my life.

[Darth Wedgius]

“Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
a medley of extemporanea,
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
and I am Marie of Romania.”
- Dorothy Parker

[abki]

What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary

-Richard Harkness

[Madner Kami]

Misdirection is the key to survival. Never attack what your enemy defends, never behave as your enemy expects, and never reveal your true strengths. If knowledge is power, then to be unknown is to be unconquerable.

- Technically an unnamed Romulan, but implied to be Toreth (but not the same actor/voice talent; as far as I can tell it could either be Elena-Melanie Fabri or Caitlin McClure)

Because I just reinstalled Birth of the Federation, which will have it's 20th birthday in about two weeks. And it's as good as it always has been.