— Julio Cortázar, born almost 100 years ago in Mittleurope of Belgium - he was a modern master of the short story and according to my four sisters the best looking Argentinian Spanish boy on jackets oftanya of his books
The painful Absurdity of my life is reflected not just in the escape across the Iron Curtain but also the strange experiences at the Bear Pits ... Every year new stranger and taxier stories come out few with happy endings as this one - Robert Vaughn in his memoir becomes concerned about a Czech-born production assistant with the unusual name of Pepsi Watson - her father became a Czech citizen and named her after the one thing from the West he missed the most. In the days after the invasion she handed out anti-Soviet newspapers, even though people had been shot for this.
Both actors recount that at the International Hotel she went up to the balcony and hurled a Russian flag like a javelin at the tanks below. Gazzara says it followed an argument. Vaughn ties it to Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubček's speech after he returned from Moscow, clearly having been tortured. It was the speech where Dubček mentions that the situation in Czechoslovakia will be "normalized." ?.. "Like everyone else in Prague, Apolina wanted to leave once the Russians came, and the Gazzaras were ready to help" Comic Tragedies
Two wonderfully funny essays on the crafting of Cold River by Graeme Cameron Guided By Voices and You’re Only As Good As Your Last Prolonged Period of Self-Loathing
"It's difficult to accept what your psyche or history dooms you to write, what Faulkner would call your postage stamp of reality. Young writers often mistakenly choose a certain vein or style based on who they want to be, unconsciously trying to blot out who they actually are. You want to escape yourself."
~ Mary Karr, interview, The Paris Review (Winter 2009)
Hear from veteran bestsellers and first time authors whether or not they feel parental toward their literary creations Is Your Book Your Baby?
This chapter and verse comes from the voice of Czech born writer and Anglicky bred preacher Sir Tom Stoppard Listen now Front Row - Elysium review
Not long before Jesus’ death, a rich young man asked him what good thing he should do to have eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the six commandments that Jesus then listed for him. The youth, replying that he had always kept them, then said, “What do I still lack?” Jesus replied, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell whatever you own and give to the poor, and you will have a treasure house in heaven, and come follow me I'mRich Yet I have no Love of Money
