Quotations On Imagination

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“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Albert Einstein

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“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.”

Carl Sagan

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“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.”

Mark Twain

“Imagination is one of the most important aspects both of life and of writing. We should cherish it in ourselves and help develop it in others.”

Charles French

A Few Quotations on First Drafts

Here are a few quotations about creating first drafts to inspire all of us to keep writing:

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“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Mark Twain

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“You might not write well every day,

but you can always edit a bad page.

You can’t edit a blank page.”

Jodi Picoult

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“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”

William Faulkner.

“If you want to be a writer, then write, every day, and do not revise. Simply create the first draft.”

Charles F. French

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A Few Quotations On Courage

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“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”

Mark Twain

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“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

Nelson Mandela

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“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face. . . we must do that which we think we cannot.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

“We must always have the courage to oppose tyranny, bigotry, and ignorance. We must speak out, use the power of our voices, and we must vote!”

Charles F. French

Quotations on Courage

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“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

Nelson Mandela

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“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face. . . we must do that which we think we cannot.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Quotations on First Drafts

Here are a few quotations about creating first drafts to inspire all of us to keep writing:

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“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Mark Twain

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page.

You can’t edit a blank page.”

Jodi Picoult

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”

William Faulkner.

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“You can do it. You can write that first draft, so that you can go on to the act of revision. But the first draft must be completed before you can achieve your finished book, and you can do it. ”

(Get The Draft Done: Helping Writers Finish Their First Draft” Charles F. French)

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A Few Quotations on Finishing First Drafts

Here are a few quotations about creating first drafts to inspire all of us to keep writing:

(https://pixabay.com)

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Mark Twain

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“You might not write well every day,

but you can always edit a bad page.

You can’t edit a blank page.”

Jodi Picoult

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”

William Faulkner.

“You can do it. You can write that first draft, so that you can then go on to the act of revision. But the first draft must be completed before you can achieve your finished book, and you can do it” (21). Get The Draft Done! Helping Writers Finish Their First Draft.

Charles F. French

My Recommended Reading List!

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In my college classes at both Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, I sometimes do something I call — Chuck’s recommended readings. I ask the students to write the title and author I suggest and then tell the students that what they do with that information is entirely up to them. I have put together a partial list of some of the books I have suggested. Some of them I consider among the best and most important books ever written, and some I simply found to be wonderful and entertaining.

Now, the list of Doc Chuck’s Recommended Readings:

Agee, James and Walker Evans. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451.

Brown, Larry. Fay.

Cervantes, Miguel De. Don Quixote.

Delaney, Frank. Ireland.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities.

Doyle, Roddy. A Star Called Henry.

Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose.

Gaiman, Neil. American Gods.

Grass, Günter. The Tin Drum.

Helprin, Mark. A Soldier of the Great War.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . The Pacific and Other Stories.

Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.

Homer. The Iliad.

. . . . . . . The Odyssey.

King, Stephen. Hearts In Atlantis.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . The Stand.

Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird.

Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Works.

Rice, Anne. Interview With the Vampire.

Rowling, J. K. The entire Harry Potter series.

Shakespeare, William. The Collected Works.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Zafon, Carlos Ruiz. The Shadow of the Wind.

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief.

I am certain there are many books I have forgotten to mention. This is neither intended to be all-inclusive, nor is it meant to be authoritarian. I hope that someone may find a book or books from this list, read them, and enjoy them.

Happy reading!

Banned Books Week and The U.L.S.

Banned Books Week — 9/22/19–9/28/19

And

The ULS: The Underground Library Society

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In honor of Banned Books Week, I wanted to revisit this information. As the creator of the ULS, The Underground Library Society, and at the request of several followers, I have decided to put up lists of books that have been banned or challenged. If a book is challenged, that usually means there were people who wanted it removed from a school or library. Both are forms of book censorship. It is important to note that I am not focusing only on books banned or challenged in the United States of America; unfortunately, censorship is a world wide action.

Here is my initial list of banned and challenged books:

The entire Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling;

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee;

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain;

Beloved by Toni Morrison;

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie;

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger;

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck;

All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque;

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown; and

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

I will add more lists of banned and challenged books in the future.

And to all of you interested in joining the U.L.S., the Underground Library Society, please send me an email with a word doc, and write about the book you would choose to save if we lived in a world in which books are illegal. frenchc1955@yahoo.com

Quotations On The Importance of First Drafts!

mark-twain-67793_960_720

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“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Mark Twain

jodipicoult

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“You might not write well every day,

but you can always edit a bad page.

You can’t edit a blank page.”

Jodi Picoult

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”

William Faulkner.

Doc Chuck’s Recommended Readings: Revisited

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In my classes at Lehigh University and the Wescoe School of Muhlenberg College, I sometimes do something I call — Doc Chuck’s recommended readings. I suggest a book for the students to read at another point in the future. I ask the students to write the title and author and then tell them that what they do with that information is entirely up to them. Some of these works I consider to be among the best and most important books ever written, and some I simply found to be wonderful and entertaining.

Now, the list:

Doc Chuck’s Recommended Readings:

Agee, James and Walker Evans. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451.

Brown, Larry. Fay.

Cervantes, Miguel De. Don Quixote.

Delaney, Frank. Ireland.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities.

Doyle, Roddy. A Star Called Henry.

Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose.

Gaiman, Neil. American Gods.