Quotations

My friend Mimi has been one of those (and there are several of you) who's been a tireless enthusiast for my ambitions be they citing a recalcitrant tank owner for polluting sacred ceremonial springs or my writing ambitions. Recently she's started sending me various quotes:

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly that balanced, well-adjusted, stable and secure people do not, on the whole,make good writers, including good journalists."
Paul Johnson, The Quotable Paul Johnson 401 (1994).

...um what am I supposed to do with that I asked her? Are you saying you sanction my insanity or saying that I'll always suck because I'm not insane enough?

She then sent this one, perhaps a bit more encouraging?
"The writing process is always impeded by obstacles which have to be negotiated. There's always some difficulty to be surmounted. Nobody has ever found that writing comes easy,that it 'flowed' from the pen. Writing is always difficult, and the more difficult it is, the better it turns out in the end."
Alexei Tolstoy, "Advice to the Young Writer" (1939)

I liked that one better, it's resonant. Though the words seem to come from a place behind or above me, getting them down and committing to sitting alone in front of a keyboard or my butcher paper-lined apartment walls when its lovely outside and you've just found a salon that gives $25 manicure/pedicures all week long! Well the little things get in the way. But in hindsight I think with the first quote, Mimi wants me to be crazier!

Judging Who's Pretty

Several years ago, I was sitting in a meeting with about thirty people. During a lull in the meeting a co-worker turned to me and said, “Rebecca were you in People magazine recently? A letter or something?” I opened my eyes wide, why yes a note I had written to the Editor of People magazine had been printed.
Flashback about a month earlier, I was at a doctor appointment and picked up the atrocious magazine. It was their annual edition 50 Most Beautiful People. I thumbed through it and got angry. I was 33 at the time. Why was I angry? The article gave me numerous reasons and a lot to say about what I saw in that magazine and I wanted to say something to them about it. I was certain if I had a good “subject” line for my email to the editor, I’d get a hearing--The subject line I used in my email was as follows:

Subject: You Mean the 50 Most Beautiful White People under 30.

I then went on a short diatribe about their selections and named several people over 30, 40, 50 and 60 of a wide cultural/ethic spectrum who were current newsmakers and NOT in their pages. What was really on those pages were newbies to Hollywood who few people knew or cared about except their SuperAgents. It was ageist and racist. They printed my rant and then replied that it was a panel who chose the people, not an individual—I then asked, well who’s on your panel, white 25 year olds? Okay I had a bone and still carry it. Try being a single woman in New York City after Sex and the City. It’s a fun show on several levels but that show was really a gay man’s (Darren Starr) perspective of his friends (gay men) dating life. I have enough gay male friends to recognize it instantly. And I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked which one of the characters I am? Most men hope you’re Samantha. Hey I love Kim Catrall's portrayal but come on! Is that sleaze or not?

I much prefer this list, “Hotties Over 50”—it starts out with Mary McDonnell, has Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne. . This is the kind of list I was meaning when I wrote those stupid people at People all those years ago.