Tarnawsky R Quotes & Sayings

And the break would never come as long as fear can turn to wrath. — John Steinbeck

I was always creatively stubborn, adverse to editing by others, and wanted to use the kind of Ukrainian we spoke among ourselves rather than the more artificial prescribed literary Ukrainian. The problem was the greatest in prose, where editors would change my language because "it sounded better this way." My poetry they left alone probably out of deference to that hallowed genre. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

I've learned the idea of pausing when agitated or doubtful. I can still write the e-mail but instead of sending that e-mail to the person I'm in a fight with, more often than not these days, I just delete it. Or I run it by someone else that I trust before I send it. And then I usually laugh at the e-mail and how funny it is. — John Feldmann

That is one more reason why I write in English only right now. I prefer writing in the language I hear around me for the people by whom I am surrounded. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

I always lived in a multilingual society (Polish-Ukrainian, German-Ukrainian, English-Ukrainian), and was open to outside linguistic influences. I think it was within three years of coming to the US that I started writing in English, although purely for myself, not trying to get it published. Living in America, I was constantly in touch with English, and Ukrainian was for me a private language. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

Choose your parents wisely. — Bertrand Russell

Old reference books are like tree rings. Without them, there'd be no way to know what a tree had lived through. — Jill Lepore

I am not cruel -
only truthful. — Sylvia Plath

It is true that I didn't write any poetry between 1995 and 2011. The reason for this was probably because I had stayed away from fiction for so long and couldn't tear myself away from it. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

I think I view myself primarily as a fiction writer. Poetry is more of a "hobby," a time of rest from the hard work of writing fiction. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

I find that biographical material holds me back, hampers my creative process, cramps my imagination. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

How can you teach someone to be creative? You have to create yourself. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

The romantic contrast between modern industry that "destroys nature" and our ancestors who "lived in harmony with nature" is groundless. Long before the Industrial Revolution, Homo sapiens held the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of life. — Yuval Noah Harari

I've done a lot of going back and forth with my own writing, in particular translating my English language stuff into Ukrainian - poetry as well as prose. But I actually hate doing it. It is a thankless, mind-numbing process, additionally unpleasant for me because it reminds me of my ambiguous status of not belonging anywhere. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole. — Malcolm X

Except for the usual house chores, doing income tax, etc., I am free to write whenever I want. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

I must say that, on the whole, I prefer fiction to poetry. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

Imagination is so much more fertile than life. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

The secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is a secret band of robbers and murderers. — Lysander Spooner

I am uneasy about the practice of other people telling you how to write. This is especially true for beginners who haven't yet developed their style and their writer's persona and are easily pushed off the course. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

Sometimes this world comes between us and what we love. But if we are patient, when this world passes away, there will be no more separation. — Yasmin Mogahed

I feel that other people's suggestions are very dangerous. Yet, I can't say that they are always destructive or not useful. Perhaps, rather than having other people tell you how you should improve your work, they should just tell you how they understand your work, what they got out of it, so that you can figure out yourself if what you did was right or wrong. — Yuriy Tarnawsky

When I know I'm not doing any auditions, I go to the skate park on my scooter or my bike. — Kodi Smit-McPhee

Now the only thing we have on our hands is too much time, and we're turning on ourselves. — Adam Carolla

In fact, the very phrase "teaching creative writing" sounds to me oxymoronic. How can you teach someone to be creative? — Yuriy Tarnawsky

As often happens between people who have chosen different ways, each of them, while rationally justifying the other's activity, despised it in his heart. To each of them it seemed that the life he led was the only real life, and the one his friend led was a mere illusion. — Leo Tolstoy