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life is not measured
I spotted this faux-weathered sign in a shop in Galway. The full quote is: “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Of course it wasn’t attributed, so I had a quick look online today to figure out who said it first. Looking at this discussion online it appears that it is regularly attributed to Hilary Cooper or George Carlin. But just because someone said something, doesn’t mean it originated with them. Another source claims that this was a quote written for a greeting card put out by the Carleton Card company in the mid 1970s. Other sites…
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wear some flowers in your hair
This striking window display is from Brown Thomas in Dublin yesterday. I stopped to snap it as I swayed down Grafton Street after an enjoyable evening with a visiting friend. We’d just attended the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, which combined culture, history and theatrical renactments with stops in landmark pubs. Clear and temperate weather made the excursion even more pleasant. During the 2-hour tour a lot of information was imparted about figures such as Joyce, Beckett, Jim Larkin, Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan. My favourite quote of the evening was attributed to the rambunctious Behan. who described himself as a ‘drinker with a writing problem.’ We raised our glasses several…
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write to remain hopeful
It’s very satisfying to finish a piece of writing, bundle it up, and send it out into the world. Psychologically, it’s important for me to complete and submit work. Sure, many of them return unsold, but at least I’m in the game. Recently, I read an apt quote on the subject by Isaac Asimov: You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you’re working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success – but only if you persist. This subject came…
