On Quitting

It takes courage to quit something, but often you get that courage back with dividends. The novelist Katie Coyle once tweeted: “Last week I killed a book I’ve been writing for three and a half years and now I feel drunk with power.” The older I get, the more I find Katie’s right. A good quit feels powerful. Deciding what you won’t have in your life is as important as decided what you will have. Trying out something you expect to love, realizing you don’t really love it, and giving it back, that takes guts.

– from I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott

On Volunteering

I’m not saying it isn’t worth it. What I am saying is that you can’t expect to give away your time and get pure, golden, ray-of-sunshine fulfillment out of it, no matter how glorious it may feel for a while to help a cause, to stand at the font of the room and feel seen and heard and able to make good things happen for people who deserve good things. Doing something for humanity doesn’t mean you won’t still find yourself sometimes hating humanity. You just have to know that going in. It’s part of the deal.

– from I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott

Novel Approach to NYC Subways

I looked back out the window and I tried to find my inner peace. I heard someone yelling at their kid and I thought: I will have inner peace. It was getting harder to find my inner peace because we were almost back at Grand Central, and the other passengers were already jostling and crowding to be the first ones out the door. Right around the time a big bald guy pushed me out of the way on the stairs and then said “Excuse you,” my inner peace peaced out completely.

– from A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out

Novel Approach to Partying

“It isn’t a ball, Madame Rossini, just a rather boring party,” said Lesley.

“A party is only as boring as the guests,” said Madame Rossini firmly.

– from Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier

Novel Approach to Refuting an Argument

Polly looked at the building–hideous seventies concrete plonked beside ten lanes of traffic–with a critical eye. “I don’t blame you for being miserable. This place would bring anyone down.”

“Exactly. And I have to work here every day, doing something I hate so how will adding some tea bags to my desk help?”

“It’ll help. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

“You’re not going to suggest I open up and get to know everyone in the office, and learn that we’re all the same under the skin, no matter how much skin there is?”

Polly laughed. “No. Some people are just awful. And some things need to be run away from, very fast, link an exploding bomb. You should quit.”

Annie felt anger build again–who was this woman, telling her what to do? “I can’t. I need the money.”

“You can do something else,” Polly said cheerfully.

“There’s a recession on.”

“Excuses.” Polly waved a hand. “Everyone uses that one, Annie. Oh, everything was always better in the past! Things are rubbish now we’re not allowed to send our children down the mines!”

– from Something Like Happy by Eva Woods

 

 

Novel Approach to Beatification

The woman working in the tiny periodicals room had two sets of glasses, one on her nose, one on top of her head, both on beaded chains around her neck and the no-nonsense expression all librarians worth their salt maintain up until the moment you ask for help finding something, at which point they turn beatific and actually seem to emit light.

– from I’ll Be Your Blue Sky by Marisa de los Santos

Fascism #trending #instyle

There are two kinds of Fascists: those who give orders and those who take them. A popular base gives Fascism the legs it needs to march, the lungs it uses to proclaim, and the muscle it relies on to menace-but that’s Fascism from the neck down. T create tyranny out of the fears and hopes of average people, money is required, and so, too, ambition and twisted ideas. It is the combination that kills.

– from Fascism: A Warning by Madeline Albright

How to Write a Dedication

Michelle Obama, thanks for all the pep talks, even if they were only in my own head.

– from The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

Novel Approach to Making Things Better

“Because. Cupcakes make everything a little better. Except for type 2 diabetes, I guess.”

– from Something Like Happy by Eva Woods

Tibet: Fear of Fear; Otherwise, Captive

With her dreadlocks and wide smile, Lateesha looked as if she wasn’t afraid of anything. But as she got ready to speak, her book propped open at the podium, Charles asked how anxious she was, on a scale of 1 to 10.

“At least a seven,” said Lateesha.

“Take it slow,” he said. “There are only a few people out there who can completely overcome their fears and they all live in Tibet.”

– from Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain