A COLLECTION OF GOOD WORDS
作家和写作
Writers And Writing
You praise the firm restraint with which they write - I'm with you, there, of course: They use the snaffle and the curb all right, But where's the bloody horse?
你赞扬他们在写作上的坚定克制——我当然同意你的看法:他们用的是马嚼子和马路边石，不错，可那匹该死的马呢?
The most lasting reputation I have is for an almost ferocious aggressiveness, when in fact I am amiable, indulgent, affectionate, shy and rather timid at heart.
我拥有的最持久的名声是近乎凶猛的攻击性，而实际上我是一个和蔼可亲、宽容、多情、害羞和内心相当胆怯的人。
Fiction that adds up, that suggests a "logical consistency," or an explanation of some kind, is surely second-rate fiction; for the truth of life is its mystery.
小说的内容加起来，暗示着“逻辑一致性”，或者某种解释，肯定是二流小说;因为生命的真理是神秘的。
I struggled in the beginning. I said I was going to write the truth, so help me God. And I thought I was. I found I couldn't. Nobody can write the absolute truth.
一开始我很挣扎。我说我要写下真相，上帝保佑我。我想我是。我发现我不能。没有人能写出绝对的真理。
I've hung out in the writer's room a few times, but the fact is we've got such a good writing staff, I don't want to get my peanut butter fingerprints on anything.
我在作家的房间里待过几次，但事实是我们有这么好的写作团队，我不想把花生酱的指纹印在任何东西上。
I'm not going to get into the writer's skills or what he was trying to portray because that's not fair. I can only say what I felt was trying to be portrayed there.
我不打算深入探讨作者的技巧或者他试图描述的东西，因为这不公平。我只能说，我的感觉是试图被描绘在那里。
I think plays, like books, are endemic. They grow out of the soil of the writer and the place he's writing about. I think, you just can't move them about, you know.
我认为戏剧和书籍一样，是地方病。它们生长在作者的土壤和他所写的地方。我想，你就是不能移动它们。
I did what most writers do when something happens that's overwhelming, fascinating, moving, all of that. I didn't know what else to do about it except write about it.
我就像大多数作家一样，当某些事情发生时，会让人无法抗拒，让人着迷，让人感动，诸如此类。除了写下来，我不知道还能做些什么。
As is said about most writers: on the one hand all I ever did from when I was a child was read, and I was a loner, which was furthered by my parents and my upbringing.
大多数作家都是这样说的:一方面，我从小所做的一切都是读书，我是一个孤独的人，这是由我的父母和我的成长所推动的。
I'm not one of those writers I learned about who get up in the morning, put a piece of paper in their typewriter machine and start writing. That I've never understood.
我不是那种我知道的那种作家，他们早上起床，把一张纸放进打字机里，然后开始写作。我一直都不明白。
I'm not a writer where I feel particularly blessed by great inspiration every day. I don't. I have to work really hard at it to try and say the things I'm concerned with.
作为一名作家，我并不是每天都能从巨大的灵感中得到特别的祝福。我不喜欢。我必须非常努力地去尝试说我关心的事情。
Handling and use by able minds give value to a language, not so much by innovating as by filling it out with more vigorous and varied services, by stretching and bending it.
有才能的人对语言的处理和使用赋予语言价值，与其说是通过创新，不如说是通过提供更有活力和更多样化的服务，通过拉伸和弯曲语言。
KEEP EXPLORING
沿着这个主题，再读几句。
I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.
我不等待情绪。如果你那样做，你将一事无成。你的大脑必须知道它必须开始工作。
I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with a little assistance from a professor of Greek and a few poets.
在一位希腊教授和几位诗人的一点帮助下，图书馆和图书管理员造就了我。
When I sat down to write I just felt like a geek writing about myself. And then it dawned on me, just because of the way I am, I can't stop talking, and part of the problem is that anything that gets said reminds me of something that happened to me one time, and invariably I cut people off and talk about myself.
当我坐下来写作时，我感觉自己就像一个写自己的极客。然后我醒悟过来，就因为我现在的样子，我不能停止说话，部分原因是，我说的任何话都会让我想起曾经发生在我身上的事情，我总是打断别人，谈论我自己。
How can I know what I think till I see what I say?
我怎么知道我在想什么，直到我看到我说的话?
You can teach someone who cares to write columns, but you can't teach someone who writes columns to care.
你可以教一个关心写专栏的人，但你不能教一个写专栏的人去关心。