Stay wired and inspired with a little more help from the writers I admire
Hi again! I’m still Spyder Darling and you might know me from such must read stories as The Tao of Spyder, How To Look Like A Real New Yorker or Home cooking made easier.
As I stated previously in My favorite quotes by my favorite writers, I am a dude of varied interests: movies, fitness, cooking, and writing being among the more socially acceptable of them. Usually being multifaceted or attention deficit-ed (who can say) is helpful when deciding what to write about next. But even yours truly from New York City, prolific as he may be, occasionally finds himself starring at his laptop keyboard, coffee at hand, an Alpha Brain by Onnit slowly kicking in, Tangerine Dream synthesizing the day away on Pandora, wrists raised, fingers poised, ready to type out a righteous noise and…nada god damn thing.
It is at this lowly uninspired point then, that I turn to the wise words of my favorite writers who have come before me, in the hopes that their experiences and adverbs of wisdom will strike a reflex in my own frontal literary lobe. And sure enough, before you can say Jack Kerouac I am typing away, back in the gonzo groove, letting participles dangle where they may until a brand new story hits the Medium light of day (or full wolf’s blood moon of night).
So here’s another sample of who and what gets my creative motor running like Hunter S. Thompson on his motorcycle, cruising up the Pacific Coast Highway late at night in the summer of 1967, with nothing to do but not get caught and make it back alive to write his next line. So check ’em out, along with the italicized suggested reading material, in case you have some modern classic catching up to do.
- Ernest Hemingway: A Moveable Feast, The Sun Always Rises, The Old Man and the Sea
“Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try.” — Ernest Hemingway
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, Tender Is The Night, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
“To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. William S. Burroughs: Naked Lunch, Junky, The Ticket That Exploded
“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” — William S. Burroughs
4. Charles Bukowski: Ham On Rye, Factotum, Tales of Ordinary Madness
“Intellectuals say simple things in difficult ways. Artists say difficult things in simple ways.” — Charles Bukowski
5. Jack Kerouac: On The Road, The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” — Jack Kerouac
6. Anthony Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential, A Cook’s Tour, Medium Raw
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” — Anthony Bourdain
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” — Hunter S. Thompson
8. Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven, The Tell Tale Heart, Annabell Lee
“There is no beauty without some strangeness.” — Edgar Allan Poe
9. Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Anthem
“We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.” — Ayn Rand
10. Oscar Wilde: The Picture Of Dorian Gray, The Importance Of Being Earnest, The Canterville Ghost
“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well. If it is worth having, it is worth waiting for. If it is worth attaining, it is worth fighting for. If it is worth experiencing, it is worth putting aside time for.” — Oscar Wilde
Well there ya have ’em, long and short story fans, 10 more of my literary ruminations. Which was your favorite? Please let me know with a comment below and don't forget to Follow!
© 2023 by Spyder Darling
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