May 16th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh
From his many writings about his own experiences, we know that he was determined to get well paid for his work. He came from a well-off background but sought independence. He switched careers, from law to government adviser so as to be able to earn more (which made sense then; today the trajectory might be in the opposite direction. He coped with serious setbacks. His first novel was extremely popular but he made no money from it because of inadequate copyright laws. Later, he negotiated better contracts. He was very competent in financial matters and kept meticulous records of his income and expenditure. He liked what money could buy — including … a stylish house-coat (his study has no heating). But for all this, money and money worries did not dominate his inner life. He wrote with astonishing sensitivity about love and beauty. He was completely realistic and pragmatic when it came to money but this did not lead him to neglect the worth of exploring bigger, more important concepts in life.
What Goethe teaches us about a healthy relationship with money (via explore-blog)
Reblogged from Explore
May 1st, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh
In 1908, Kafka landed a position at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute in Prague, where he was fortunate to be on the coveted “single shift” system, which meant office hours from 8 or 9 in the morning until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. This was a distinct improvement over his previous job, which required long hours and frequent overtime. So how did Kafka use these newfound hours of freedom? First, lunch; then a four-hour-long nap; then 10 minutes of exercise; then a walk; then dinner with his family; and then, finally, at 10:30 or 11:30 at night, a few hours of writing—although much of this time was spent writing letters or diary entries.

Franz Kafka, professional procrastinator – an excerpt from Mason Currey’s compendium of famous writers’ daily rituals

Also see: The science of procrastination and how to manage it.

(via explore-blog)
Reblogged from Explore
March 25th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh

Dear Mr Clements,

As an Irish admirer of yours who has travelled 4000 miles mainly to see you, may I request the privilege of calling on you to pay my respects.

Indeed I might claim this as a right. Here is the proof: Twenty four years ago a little Irish boy lay dying in a Liverpool hospital. The nurse spoke to him very kindly — a bad sign –& asked if there was anything he would like, which was even worse. In hospitals politeness is saved only for those who will soon be beyond the need of it. He wearily asked for a book to read, & they gave him “Babylon” by Grant Allen. There was a quaint American interest in the book which made the boy discover America for the first time. Before that it had been only a place on a map. Then he became interested, threw the first book away, & demanded one about America –& they gave him Huckleberry Finn. He read it, & laughed, & laughed, & laughed, until he fell into the first sound sleep he had had for a fortnight. When he awoke twenty six years later — it was only hours, but it seemed years since he had read the book — he hollered for it again, & got it, & had some breakfast, the first for a week, The nurse was rude to him but he didn’t mind — he had Huckleberry under his pillow. This is why he didn’t pay much attention to the doctor’s remark that it was a miraculous recovery, & Nature still had a fat purseful of miracles left. The boy only grinned, & knew better: it was Mark Twain.

Heartwarming fan mail for Mark Twain (via explore-blog)
Reblogged from Explore
March 4th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh

theparisreview:

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) Cahier 12, 1909, NAF 16652 Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), Paris, France, © BnF, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais. (via)

Reblogged from The Paris Review
February 17th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh

davidajohnsonart:

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.
Mario Vargas Llosa

February 16th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh

davidajohnsonart:

The merit of originality is not novelty, it is sincerity. The believing man is the original man.
 Thomas Carlyle

February 2nd, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh

theparisreview:

Famous Notebooks

1. Mark Twain - “He had his leather bound notebooks custom made according to his own design idea. Each page had a tab; once a page had been used, he would tear off its tab, allowing him to easily find the next blank page for his jottings”

2. Charles Darwin - “The notebooks were filled with memorandum to himself on things to look further into, questions he wanted to answer, scientific speculations, notes on the many books he was currently reading, natural observations, sketches, and lists of the books he had read and wanted to read. But the progression is far from orderly: the entries are chaotically arranged and wide-ranging; they jump from one scientific subject to the next and are interspersed with notes on correspondences and conversations. He would rest the notebook on his desk and write horizontally down the page with a pen, and, like Isaac Newton, he would sometimes start in from both ends of the notebook at once and work towards the middle.

3. Jack Kerouac - The notebook entry reads: 

“Ginsberg — intelligent enuf, interested in the outward appearance & pose of great things, intelligent enuf to know where to find them, but once there he acts like Jerry Newman, the photographer anxious to be photographed photographing —— Ginsberg wants to run his hand up the backs of people, for this he gives and seldom takes — He is also a mental screwball

*(Tape recorder anxious to be tape recorded tape recording) (like Seymour Barab anxious to have his name in larger letters than Robert Louis Stevenson, like Steinberg & Verlaine Rimbaud Baudelaire”

4. Ernest Hemingway - The notebook entry reads:

“My name is Ernest Miller Hemingway

I was born on July 21, 1899

My favorite authors are Kipling, O. Henry and Steuart Edward White.

My favorite flower is lady slipper and tiger lily.

My favorite sports are trout fishing, hiking, shooting, football and boxing.

My favorite studies are English, zoology and chemistry.

I intend to travel and write.”

via

(Source: likeafieldmouse)

Reblogged from The Paris Review
January 30th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh

theparisreview:

On January 29 in 1845, “The Raven” was published in the New York Evening Mirror. It obviously follows that we should bring you a recording of Christopher Walken reading Poe’s poem.

Well, it is a day late, but yes; it does indeed follow.

Reblogged from The Paris Review
January 25th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh
To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.
Somerset Maugham, born on this day in 1874, in Books and YouComplement with Nabokov on what makes a good reader.  (via explore-blog)
Reblogged from Explore
January 22nd, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh
To be perfectly original one should think much and read little, and this is impossible, for one must have read before one has learnt to think.
Lord Byron, born 225 years ago today, on originality (via explore-blog)
Reblogged from Explore
January 15th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh
You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.
 Jack London (via thetinhouse)
Reblogged from
January 14th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh

dalpuri:

J.R.R. Tolkien on the inception of The Hobbit.

See, teachers and professors? Grading can actually turn out to be a creative, worthwhile and lucrative exercise.

Reblogged from
January 8th, 2013
pejmanyousefzadeh

davidajohnsonart:

I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.
Aeschylus

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