Borrowed Wisdom

 “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”   Stephanie Hersh, the late Julia Child’s long-time assistant, explains Julia’s world-view.

 “Physics is a magnetic topic for me because it sounds like nature speaking out.” – Doris Eder My sister-in-law, Doris, has recently become enchanted by books on various difficult subjects such as brain, mind, the cosmos, and physics. She is writing an essay about physics for a literary magazine. For more about this extraordinary 84-year-old woman see https://elizabethmccullochauthor.com/a-gift-from-doris 

 “I draw strength from the traditions of all those who, with every reason to despair, have refused to do so.” – Adrienne Rich, My Native Land, My Life 

“There’s a lady in the city
And she thinks she loves them all
There’s the one who’s thinking of her
There’s the one who sometimes calls
There’s the one who writes her letters
With his facts and figures scrawl
She has brought them to her senses
They have laughed inside her laughter
Now she rallies her defenses
For she fears that one will ask her
For eternity
And she’s so busy being free”
Joni Mitchell – Cactus Tree

“Novel-reading is a species of credencive* idolatry, for it is a powerful exercise of the brain, a pleasing titillation of the mind, and generally without any real use.”      J. Stanley Grimes, Problems of Creation  (1881) *[Disposed to give credence; ready to believe -OED]

“As far as I’m concerned, character is everything. I never did see why I have to throw in a plot, too.”  – Anne Tyler

“brothers,
this big woman
carries much sweetness
in the folds of her flesh.
her hair
is white with wonderful. she is rounder than the moon
and far more faithful.
brothers,
who will hold her,
who will find her beautiful
if you do not?”

– Song at Midnight by Lucille Clifton 

     “When I go to Paynes Prairie I exhale, as though I have been holding my breath for days.” – Me (the Marsh in Dreaming the Marsh is inspired by Paynes Prairie)