www.richardjespers.com
  • Home
  • Books
  • Journals
  • Blog

A WRITER'S WIT: RUTH PRAWER JHABVALA

5/7/2025

0 Comments

 
The older books were quite light-hearted. But I think most of my novels do end on a deep note of pessimism. Shadows seem to be closing in. The final conclusion isn’t that life is wonderful and everything is bright and cheery and in the garden.
​Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Author of ​A Lovesong for India
​Born May 7, 1927
Picture
R. Prawer Jhabvala
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Edward Gibbon

FRI: My Book World | Julia Alvarez
, ​Afterlife: A Novel
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: ISAK DINESEN

4/17/2025

0 Comments

 
Love, with very young people, is a heartless business. We drink at that age from thirst, or to get drunk; it is only later in life that we occupy ourselves with the individuality of our wine.
​Isak Dinesen
Author of ​Out of Africa 
Born April 17, 1885
Picture
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | John McPhee, The Founding Fish

​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ellen Glasgow
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Barry Hannah
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Shirley MacLaine
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: JESMYN WARD

4/1/2025

0 Comments

 
There is power in naming racism for what it is, in shining a bright light on it, brighter than any torch or flashlight. A thing as simple as naming it allows us to root it out of the darkness and hushed conversation where it likes to breed like roaches. It makes us acknowledge it. Confront it.
​Jesmyn Ward
Author of Let Us Descend
Born April 1, 1977
Picture
J. Ward
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Hans Christian Andersen
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Jane Goodall

FRI: My Book World | Brandon Taylor, Real Life: A Novel
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: GARTH GREENWELL

3/19/2025

0 Comments

 
I guess I think that sex and desire and humiliation are central to my experience of consciousness—to my experience of humanness—and I wanted to explore the ways that they circle around and approach and fail to add up to love, or the ways that those three terms—sex, desire, love—can in some lights seem synonymous and in others like elements entirely alien to one another.
Garth Greenwell
Author of Cleanness
Born March 19, 1978
Picture
G. Greenwell
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lois Lowry

FRI: My Book World | Marie Benedict, ​The Queens of Crime: A Novel
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: DEBORAH COPAKEN KOGAN

3/11/2025

0 Comments

 
Photography forces one out into the world, interacting with people and the environment. It flexes all those right brain, spatially-adept muscles.
​Deborah Copaken Kogan
Author of Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War
Born March 11, 1966
Picture
D. Copaken Kogan
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Dave Eggers
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Craven

FRI: My Book World | Curtis Sittenfeld, ​Prep: A Novel
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: JAMES ELLROY

3/4/2025

0 Comments

 
The truth of the matter is, you lose a parent to murder when you’re ten years old, and in fact at the time of the murder you hate your lost parent, my mother in my case.
​James Ellroy
​Author of The Black Dahlia
Born March 4, 1948
Picture
J. Ellroy
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Rosa Luxemburg
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Barrett Browning

FRI: My Book World | Eric Haseltine, ​The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: JOHN STEINBECK

2/27/2025

0 Comments

 
I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.
​John Steinbeck
Author of Cannery Row
Born February 27, 1902
Picture
J. Steinbeck
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | William S. Burroughs
, Queer

TUES: A Writer's Wit | James Ellroy
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Rosa Luxemburg
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Barrett Browning
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: AMY TAN

2/19/2025

0 Comments

 
In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.
​Amy Tan
Author of The Opposite of Fate
Born February 19, 1952
Picture
A. Tan
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Hesketh Pearson

FRI: My Book World | Michael Nott, ​Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: TONI MORRISON

2/18/2025

0 Comments

 
At no point in my life have I ever felt as though I were an American.
Toni Morrison
Author of Beloved
Born February 18, 1931
Picture
T. Morrison
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Amy Tan
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Hesketh Pearson

FRI: My Book World | Michael Nott: ​Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: JUDY BLUME

2/12/2025

0 Comments

 
You know what I worry about? I worry that kids today don't have enough time to just sit and daydream.
​Judy Blume
Author of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing 
Born February 12, 1938
Picture
J. Blume
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Ricardo 
Güiraldes
FRI: My Book World | Graham Norton, Ask Graham
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: SHIRLEY HAZZARD

1/30/2025

0 Comments

 
It's nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of.
​Shirley Hazzard
Author of The Great Fire
Born January 30, 1931
Picture
S. Hazzard
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Alice Sebold
, The Lovely Bones

TUES: A Writer's Wit | Betty Friedan
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | William S. Burroughs
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Annie Bethel Spencer
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: ANYA SETON

1/23/2025

0 Comments

 
A woman with opinions had better develop a thick skin and a loud voice.
​Anya Seton 
Author of The Winthrop Woman
Born January 23, 1904
Picture
A. Seton
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Dave King
, The Ha-Ha

TUES: A Writer's Wit | Nien Cheng
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Anton Chekhov
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Shirley Hazzard
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: M. K. HOBSON

1/21/2025

0 Comments

 
I really do believe some people are naturally novelists and some people are short story writers. For me, when I was in middle school or high school,  I started with novels.
​M. K. Hobson
Author of The Native Star
Born January 21, 1969
Picture
M. K. Hobson
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | August Strindberg
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Anya Seton
FRI: 
My Book World | Dave King, ​The Ha-Ha
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: ZORA NEALE HURSTON

1/7/2025

0 Comments

 
Women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
​Zora Neale Hurston
Author of Mules and Men
Born January 7, 1891
Picture
Z. Neale Hurston
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Robert Littell
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Simone de Beauvoir
FRI: 
My Book World | Nic Stone, ​Dear Martin: A Novel
0 Comments

FORD MADOX FORD

12/17/2024

0 Comments

 
For the judging of contemporary literature the only test is one's personal taste. If you much like a new book, you must call it literature even though you find no other soul to agree with you, and if you dislike a book you must declare that it is not literature though a million voices should shout you that you are wrong. The ultimate decision will be made by Time.
​Ford Madox Ford
​Author of The Good Soldier
Born December 17, 1873 
Picture
F. M. Ford
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Lucy Worsley
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Ronan Farrow
FRI: 
My Book World | Margaret Rutherford, Margaret Rutherford: An Autobiography as Told to Gwen Robyns
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: ANDREW SEAN GREER

11/21/2024

0 Comments

 
Prizes aren’t love. Because people who never met you can’t love you. The slots for winners are already set, from here until Judgment Day. They know the kind of poet who’s going to win, and if you happen to fit the slot, then bully for you! It’s like fitting a hand-me-down suit. It’s luck, not love. Not that it isn’t nice to have luck. [From  Less.]
Andrew Sean Greer
Author of Less
Born November 21, 1970
Picture
A. S. Greer
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Armistead Maupin, Michael Tolliver Lives

TUES DEC 3: A Writer's Wit | Michael Musto
WEDS DEC 4: A Writer's Wit | Barbara Amiel
THURS DEC 5: A Writer's Wit | Joan Didion
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: RUTA SEPETYS

11/19/2024

0 Comments

 
Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness.
​Ruta Sepetys
Author of I Must Betray You
Born November 19, 1967
Picture
R. Sepetys
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | President Joe Biden
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Andrew Sean Greer
FRI: My Book World | Armistead 
Maupin, ​Michal Tolliver Lives
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: NAOMI WOLF

11/12/2024

0 Comments

 
The idea that women are innately gentle is a fantasy, and a historically recent one. Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, is depicted as wreathed in male human skulls; the cruel entertainments of the Romans drew audiences as female as they were male; Boudicca led her British troops bloodily into battle.
​Naomi Wolf
Author of The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
Born November 12, 1962
Picture
N. Wolf
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Whoopi Goldberg
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Roland Martin
FRI: My Book World | Michael 
Cunningham, ​Day: A Novel
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: KATHERINE PATERSON

10/31/2024

0 Comments

 
The best thing about being a writer is it gives you readers who understand your deepest feelings and fears.
​Katherine Paterson
Author of Bridge to Terabithia
Born October 31, 1932
Picture
K. Paterson
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Louise Aronson, 
Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ida Tarbell
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Maria Shriver
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Guy Gavriel Kay
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: THOMAS WOLFE

10/3/2024

0 Comments

 
Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father’s heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?
Thomas Wolfe
Author of You Can't Go Home Again
Born October 3, 1900
Picture
T. Wolfe
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

TUES: A Writer's Wit | Laura Pedersen
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Jody Williams
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Claude Simon
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: KEN KESEY

9/17/2024

0 Comments

 
Listen, wait, and be patient. Every shaman knows you have to deal with the fire that’s in your audience’s eye.
​Ken Kesey
Author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Born September 17, 1935
Picture
K. Kesey
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Anna Deavere Smith
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Tanith Lee
FRI: My Book World | Adam Moss, The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing
0 Comments

MICHAEL ONDAATJE

9/12/2024

0 Comments

 
The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human. Meander if you want to get to town.
​Michael Ondaatje
Author of Divisadero
Born September 12, 1943
Picture
M. Ondaatje
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Griffin Dunne, The Friday Afternoon Club: A Memoir
 
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ken Kesey
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Anna Deavere Smith
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Tanith Lee
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: WILLIAM LEAST HEAT-MOON

8/27/2024

0 Comments

 
On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and the back roads blue. Now even the colors are changing. But in those brevities just before dawn and a little after dark—times neither day nor night—the old roads return to the sky some of its color. Then, in truth, they cast a mysterious shadow of blue, and it’s that time when the pull of the blue highway is strongest, when the open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself. 
William Least Heat-Moon
​Author of Blue Highways
Born August 27, 1939
Picture
W. Least Heat-Moon
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit |Marguerite Young
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Karen Hesse
FRI: My Book World | Glenway Wescott, Apartment in Athens
0 Comments

WRITER'S WIT: ANNIE PROULX

8/22/2024

0 Comments

 
You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.
​Annie Proulx
Author of Barkskins
​Born August 22, 1935
Picture
A. Proulx
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning

TUES: A Writer's Wit | William Least Heat-Moon
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Marguerite Young
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Karen Hesse
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: KATE WALBERT

8/13/2024

0 Comments

 
I don’t know how others reconcile what happened before with what happens now. For me, the past is a cool, dark pond in which I will always stand partially submerged. That’s just the way it is.
​Kate Walbert
Author of A Short History of Women
Born August 13, 1961
Picture
K. Walbert
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Steve Martin
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Robert Bolt
FRI: My Book World | Robert Fiske, ​The Dictionary of Disagreeable English
0 Comments
<<Previous
    AUTHOR
    Richard Jespers is a writer living in Lubbock, Texas, USA.

    See my profile at Author Central:
    http://amazon.com/author/rjespers


    Richard Jespers's books on Goodreads
    My Long-Playing Records My Long-Playing Records
    ratings: 1 (avg rating 5.00)


    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011



    Categories

    All
    Acting
    Actors
    African American History
    Aging
    Alabama
    Alaska
    Aldo Leopold
    Andy Warhol
    Arizona
    Arkansas
    Art
    Atrial Fibrillation
    Authors
    Authors' Words
    Barcelona
    Biography
    Blogging About Books
    Blogs
    Books
    California
    Cancer
    Cars
    Catalonia
    Colorado
    Cooking
    Creative Nonfiction
    Culinary Arts
    Deleting Facebook
    Ecology
    Education
    Environment
    Epigraphs
    Essays
    Feminism
    Fiction
    Fifty States
    Film
    Florida
    Georgia
    Grammar
    Greece
    Gun Violence
    Hawaii
    Heart Health
    Historic Postcards
    History
    Humor
    Idaho
    Iowa
    Journalism
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Literary Biography
    Literary Journals
    Literary Topics
    Literature
    Maine
    Massachusetts
    Memoir
    Michigan
    Minnesota
    Mississippi
    M K Rawlings
    Musicians
    Nevada
    New Hampshire
    New Mexico
    New Yorker Stories
    Nonfiction
    North Carolina
    Novelist
    Ohio
    Pam Houston
    Parker Posey
    Photography
    Playwrights
    Poetry
    Politics
    Psychology
    Publishing
    Quotations
    Race
    Reading
    Recipes
    Seattle
    Short Story
    South Carolina
    Spain
    Susan Faludi
    Teaching
    Tennessee
    Texas
    Theater
    The Novel
    Travel
    Travel Photographs
    True Crime
    #TuesdayThoughts
    TV
    U.S.
    Vermont
    Voting
    War
    Washington
    Wisconsin
    World War II
    Writer's Wit
    Writing


    RSS Feed

    Blogroll

    alicefrench.wordpress.com
    kendixonartblog.com
    Valyakomkova.blogspot.com

    Websites

    Caprock Writers' Alliance
    kendixonart.com

    tedkincaid.com
    www.trackingwonder.com
    www.skans.edu
    www.ttu.edu
    www.newpages.com
    www.marianszczepanski.com
    William Campbell Contemporary Art, Inc.
    Barbara Brannon.com
    Artsy.net
WWW.RICHARDJESPERS.COM  ©2011-2025
                    BOOKS  PHOTOS  PODCASTS  JOURNALS  BLOG