The Curious Engineer

Alec Nevala-Lee

2013–2014

1,242 posts

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2014 614

December 2014

  1. “You know what it means?”
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. How is Starbucks like the Kardashians?
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Mary Poppins and the rise of the blockbuster
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. The actor and the multiplication table
  8. The striking landscape
  9. The shallow and the deep
  10. “Not obvious, not inaccessible, but just between…”
  11. The art of mathematics
  12. The jig is up
  13. Quote of the Day
  14. The power of the page
  15. Quote of the Day
  16. The equation of the curve
  17. The penumbra of discovery
  18. The Serial box
  19. Quote of the Day
  20. “May I please speak with Maddy Shaw?”
  21. Quote of the Day
  22. You Only Write Twice
  23. Quote of the Day
  24. Malcolm in the Middle
  25. Quote of the Day
  26. The Shakespeare Code
  27. Quote of the Day
  28. “To fling oneself desperately out of temptation…”
  29. The junction makers
  30. The Bulgarian job
  31. Quote of the Day
  32. “Arkady arrived at the museum at ten…”
  33. Quote of the Day
  34. The Sony Network
  35. Quote of the Day
  36. The Muppets according to Mathieu
  37. Quote of the Day
  38. The Darin Morgan files
  39. Quote of the Day
  40. The artist as engineer
  41. “Write your own name a hundred times…”
  42. Looking forward, looking back
  43. Quote of the Day
  44. The Wire cutter
  45. Quote of the Day
  46. The Toy Story of our lives
  47. Quote of the Day
  48. The Nichols improvisation
  49. Quote of the Day
  50. The Necker Cube of Serial
  51. Quote of the Day

November 2014

  1. Francis Ford Coppola on keeping good notes
  2. Arnold Hauser on Shakespeare’s pragmatism
  3. The magical life of Henning Nelms
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. How I discovered my feminine side
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. A few tips on faking it
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. Inventing conspiracies for fun and profit
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. Lemony Snicket’s unfortunate event
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. Filling in the missing bits
  14. The scientific actor
  15. How to write a popular play
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. My Uber Ex
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. The art of distraction
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. Exorcising the ghosts
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. Cutting the Dragon
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. Homer on the highways
  26. Necessary inexactness
  27. What I learned on the Street
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. The Ian Malcolm rule
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. Exactly the right number of cooks
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. The light of distant stars
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. Going the Distance
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. The difference between nearly and really
  38. “You couldn’t do it in any other way!”
  39. The holy grail of props
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Stellar mass
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. The Sea Captain syndrome
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. Ibsen’s three drafts
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. Gardner’s hors d’oeuvre
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. Diderot on craftsmanship
  50. Notes on an effective play

October 2014

  1. The monster in the mirror
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. “What are you offering?”
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. The divided self
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. Asimov’s ABCs
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. Masters of the earthworm, or the generalist’s dilemma
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. “They were delighted to tell me everything…”
  12. Inventing The Woman in White
  13. The autograph man
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. “This, above all else, had saved his life…”
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. Gravity’s word processor
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. Beethoven, Freud, and the mystery of genius
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. On not knowing what you’re doing
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. Drawing from the shoulder
  24. “A poet is the most unpoetical of any thing in existence…”
  25. “A desolate-minded man, ye kna…”
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. “She had entered an underground labyrinth…”
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. Goodbye to the Bay Guardian
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. An unread life
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. The endangered tome
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. The alert experimenter
  36. A different kind of thinking cap
  37. Behind the screens
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. “This is where he wanted to go…”
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. The four-panel rule
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. Meanwhile on Twin Peaks
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. The fluency trap
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. Chopin on brainwork and inspiration
  48. The Lego Doctrine
  49. The logic of tears
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. “He took in his surroundings…”
  52. Quote of the Day
  53. The act of combination
  54. Quote of the Day

September 2014

  1. A life in random roles
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. In sickness and in health
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. The perils of coding cleverness
  6. Notes on polishing the play
  7. A playwright’s laws of thought
  8. “A big, friendly officer…”
  9. Quote of the Day
  10. The act of noticing
  11. Quote of the Day
  12. Making it simple, keeping it complex
  13. Quote of the Day
  14. Show me the monster
  15. Quote of the Day
  16. The perfection of imperfection
  17. The colorist’s challenge
  18. Erase and rewind
  19. Quote of the Day
  20. “He knew that he had waited too long…”
  21. Quote of the Day
  22. The great teachers
  23. Quote of the Day
  24. The slow fade
  25. Quote of the Day
  26. Is storytelling kid’s stuff?
  27. Quote of the Day
  28. “It is only a picture he is painting…”
  29. Churchill’s cryptogram
  30. The fame monster
  31. Quote of the Day
  32. “Whose locker is this?”
  33. Quote of the Day
  34. Thoughts from an excellent sheep
  35. Quote of the Day
  36. “And my bow!”
  37. Quote of the Day
  38. Why can’t the musical learn to speak?
  39. Quote of the Day
  40. “There are no exact guidelines…”
  41. Some strangeness in the proportion
  42. Ionesco’s amusing experiment
  43. “It’s been too long since we truly spoke…”
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. Writing in hotel rooms
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. The first Madame Bovary
  48. The painter’s process

August 2014

  1. The two circles of tension
  2. A musician’s day
  3. Frank Lloyd Wright on music and architecture
  4. “The greatest and most terrible sight…”
  5. Quote of the Day
  6. The oilman’s divorce, or the problem of luck
  7. Quote of the Day
  8. Crayon physics
  9. Quote of the Day
  10. An alternative library of creativity
  11. Quote of the Day
  12. Composing the fugue
  13. The do-nothing farm
  14. The best worst year
  15. Quote of the Day
  16. “A freezing horror took hold of him…”
  17. Quote of the Day
  18. How is writing like parenting?
  19. Quote of the Day
  20. What makes a good writing rule?
  21. Quote of the Day
  22. Birds of a feather
  23. Quote of the Day
  24. The true purpose of structure
  25. Proverbs for problem-solvers
  26. Four ways of looking at simplicity
  27. Quote of the Day
  28. “So what are we saying here?”
  29. Quote of the Day
  30. The imitation game
  31. Quote of the Day
  32. What is intuition?
  33. Quote of the Day
  34. The eye of the octopus
  35. Quote of the Day
  36. Activating the daliluw
  37. The seven rules of cutting
  38. Sticking to the channel
  39. “It took more courage to choose the passive way…”
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Nice to meet you, Harwin—or is it Hullen?
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. The confidence game
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. We are the walrus
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. “Just you and your binoculars and a stupid look on your face…”
  48. “The scene is scored—now you have to put in the dialogue…”
  49. The challenge of honest optimism
  50. Quote of the Day

July 2014

  1. “Most of the assembly was already done…”
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. What is poetry like?
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Scatter my ashes at the Newberry Library
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. Star Trek into dorkiness
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. Jumping from panel to panel
  10. Dancing beyond personality
  11. Putting together the building blocks
  12. “And this has something to do with Operation Pepel?”
  13. Quote of the Day
  14. The films of a life
  15. Quote of the Day
  16. Two of a kind
  17. Quote of the Day
  18. The logline game
  19. Quote of the Day
  20. “Then I disorder it a little bit…”
  21. The antechambers of the mind
  22. The crowded circle of television
  23. Quote of the Day
  24. “We can’t trust our eyes or ears…”
  25. Quote of the Day
  26. A tale of two Larrys
  27. Quote of the Day
  28. Mifune’s stick and the reasons for randomness
  29. Quote of the Day
  30. The white piece of paper
  31. Quote of the Day
  32. “The darndest thing happened to me the other night…”
  33. “Clarity, completeness, quintessence, quiet…”
  34. A boyhood at the movies
  35. Quote of the Day
  36. “He knew at once what was happening…”
  37. Quote of the Day
  38. A meditation on the tarot
  39. Quote of the Day
  40. The return of David Thomson
  41. Quote of the Day
  42. This is her youth
  43. Quote of the Day
  44. A writer’s treasure map
  45. The verbal slips of Jonathan Edwards
  46. A day in the life of Benjamin Franklin
  47. “He knew at last that he was home…”
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. Fitbit and the art of writing
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. The good life
  52. Quote of the Day

June 2014

  1. The dot and the line
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. Bits of straw and fluff
  4. Closing the windows on a rainy night
  5. Hell is other movies
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. “He was visibly surprised to see the knife…”
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. The genius and the journeymen
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. Triumph of the vernacular
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. Books do furnish a life
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. The soul’s nourishment
  16. The initial sketch
  17. Behind the jukebox
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. “But the changes reveal more than they intend…”
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. The map and the territory
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. Watching with the hive mind
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. The dreamlife of artists
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. The knowledge of the hands
  28. The watchers at the gates
  29. The running gag
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. “Karvonen kept an eye on them…”
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. True Detective and the post-twist world
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. The weather men
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. The book and the tower
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. The unseen tiger
  40. How to stick to your knitting
  41. Hard science fiction, harder reading
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. “What exactly are you implying?”
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. P-E-N-M-A-N-S-H-I-P
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. The Long Game
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. Life Itself and the art of the memoir
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. The doodlebugs

May 2014

  1. The virgin ring
  2. “Well, that’s just your opinion, man…”
  3. Quote of the Day
  4. “Something bad has happened…”
  5. Quote of the Day
  6. The Plan of St. Gall and the sacred act of reading
  7. Quote of the Day
  8. The known unknown
  9. Quote of the Day
  10. The Tao of Painting
  11. “Have the idea in your mind before you take up the brush…”
  12. The chief worth of civilization
  13. The jet set
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. “Wolfe entered the visitors’ room…”
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. The likability fallacy, revisited
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. A writer’s checklist
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. The Reddit Wedding
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. Sculpting in time
  24. The art of staying awake
  25. The rediscovered country
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. “Begin with the cell…”
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. The riffs of Wall Street
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. The limits of the Cosmos
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. Community values
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. James Dickey, Mad Man
  36. The way of the cow and hen
  37. In with the old
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. “This is our greatest vulnerability…”
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Game of spoilers
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. 24-hour party people
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. As tears go by
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. Building the cathedral
  48. The art of harmony
  49. Teens like us
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. “Karvonen set his hands on the container…”
  52. Quote of the Day

April 2014

  1. The fascination of the writer’s routine
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. The one question, revisited
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. The one question you need to ask
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. “Just mend it!”
  8. The Dumbo solution
  9. Food for plot
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. “Tell me about the Dyatlov Pass…”
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. The prop masters
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. The test of tone
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. Cool tools and hot ideas
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. The nine rules of debugging
  20. The Eureka Zone
  21. The book thief
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. “Karvonen headed for the platform…”
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. Constructing a shrine to the random
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. The fifty-minute hour
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. The billion-dollar song
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. The Zen view
  32. “A certain disdainful generosity…”
  33. Would you have a drink with this man?
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. “It was forty minutes to Belmarsh…”
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. Ten ways of looking at cutting
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. The art of improvisation
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Hannibal rises
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. Where does the architecture come from?
  44. “A succession of separate poetic experiences…”
  45. I love you, you’re perfect, now change
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. “The police already have your picture…”
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. The Tone Ranger
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. Learning from the masters: Ian McEwan
  52. Quote of the Day

March 2014

  1. Enter through the Creature Shop
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. A chair’s many faces
  4. “He felt, he imagined, he reasoned, he constructed…”
  5. The title shot
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. “Every passing second reduced their chances…”
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. Discovering the “Cryptids,” Part 3
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. Discovering the “Cryptids,” Part 2
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. Discovering the “Cryptids,” Part 1
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. Performing and informing
  16. The practical poet
  17. The primordial monkeys
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. “He drew air into his lungs one last time…”
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. The mismeasure of man
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. A writer’s bucket list
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. The evolution of art
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. “If you are full of red, choose a green or a blue…”
  28. The Cary Grant effect
  29. The killing joke
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. “She couldn’t believe it was over…”
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. Developing the edges
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. Specific Gravity
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. The hero paradox
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. The stories scientists tell
  40. The law of elegance
  41. In the country of the mind
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. “And each man recognized the other for what he was…”
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. Attack of the “Cryptids”
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. What do you care what other people think?
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. Bricolage and the working writer
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. The way of the bricoleur
  52. How does the new come into being?

February 2014

  1. Oscar heaven, Oscar hell
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. “What’s this guy’s story?”
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Tracing the lessons of tracing paper
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. Turning down the volume
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. Blinn’s Law and the paradox of efficiency
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. The old man mad about drawing
  12. “One really beautiful wrist motion…”
  13. The kindest cut
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. “Karvonen surveyed the crowd…”
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. Moving past the cookbook
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. Less critical, but more often
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. The way of entanglement
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. “It is not enough to have a beautiful voice…”
  24. “I could spend my life arranging things…”
  25. The inheritance of loss
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. “I’d like to buy a ticket for today’s tournament…”
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. One short post about Glenn Gould
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. The lesson of salt
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. The art of the start
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. Carlyle’s clothespins
  36. A seed in favorable soil
  37. The completist’s dilemma
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. “Wolfe had been watching the front gate…”
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Working slower, working faster
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. The art of postponement
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. Presenting “The Whale God”
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. “The innovator must be discontented…”
  48. “Poets have got to enjoy themselves sometimes…”

January 2014

  1. Confessions of an advertising fan
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. “Ilya kept an eye on the building…”
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Writing what you never knew you needed
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. A young person’s guide to the ukulele
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. Laugh and let die
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. The magpies of knowledge
  12. The memory of circuits
  13. Crashing the great movie parties
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. “It was over in less than a second…”
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. He said: “She said…”
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. The vinyl age
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. Comedy and the high-functioning psychotic
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. “To make progress is a kind of miner’s work…”
  24. Aldous Huxley on intuition and training
  25. “On top of everything else, she was lost…”
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. A writer’s vocabulary
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. The art of the epigraph
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. My life as a quote hoarder
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. As the globe turns
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. Alan Watts on the human game
  36. “Why didn’t you put a red dress on her?”
  37. The jobholders and the enthusiasts
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. Withered hardware, lateral thinking
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Good ideas, bad ideas, no ideas
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. “And they lived happily ever after…”
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. The magic feather syndrome
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. “Luck favors he who wagers the most…”
  48. “It’s never about one thing in particular…”
  49. “Powell studied his father…”
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. The cultural chalk circle
  52. Quote of the Day
  53. Philip Roth on uncertainty and new beginnings
  54. Quote of the Day

2013 628

December 2013

  1. What kind of year has it been?
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. The road goes ever on
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Charles Hoy Fort on magic
  6. Practicing the scales
  7. “When Renata awoke that morning…”
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. The lost art of the extended take
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. The greatest opening shots in movies
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. The best closing shots in film
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. “22 panels that always work!”
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. “So now he is ready to write it…”
  18. “First I want to get my own ideas into shape…”
  19. Oliver Wendell Holmes on dreams
  20. “His arms and legs were bound to the chair…”
  21. Quote of the Day
  22. Becoming a writer for the wrong reasons
  23. Quote of the Day
  24. A marginal confession
  25. Quote of the Day
  26. The Outsider
  27. Quote of the Day
  28. From Aqaba to the Lonely Mountain
  29. Quote of the Day
  30. Salvador Dali on how to take a nap
  31. Tesla saved from drowning
  32. “When the dead man’s face was revealed…”
  33. Quote of the Day
  34. The crucial missing piece
  35. Quote of the Day
  36. Turning it upside down
  37. Quote of the Day
  38. Learning to love every stage
  39. Quote of the Day
  40. Living with dissatisfaction
  41. Quote of the Day
  42. A mapmaker’s art
  43. How is a poet like a businessman?
  44. Tearing up your drawings
  45. “At this hour of the morning, the prison was quiet…”
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. Dealing with distraction
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. How to think in the shower
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. The likability fallacy
  52. Quote of the Day
  53. The art of noodling
  54. Quote of the Day
  55. Descartes’s four rules of logic

November 2013

  1. The writer on the porch
  2. Is it Catch-22…or The Phantom Tollbooth?
  3. Quote of the Day
  4. Agnosticism and the working writer
  5. Quote of the Day
  6. Learning from the masters: Charles Schulz
  7. Quote of the Day
  8. Googling the rise and fall of literary reputations: the sequel
  9. Quote of the Day
  10. Googling the rise and fall of literary reputations
  11. Quote of the Day
  12. Guillermo del Toro on screenwriting
  13. “You must have no dependence on your genius…”
  14. “To summon back the ghosts of the north…”
  15. Quote of the Day
  16. The conspiratorial urge
  17. Quote of the Day
  18. The art of translation, part 2
  19. Quote of the Day
  20. The art of translation, part 1
  21. Quote of the Day
  22. How to repeat yourself
  23. Quote of the Day
  24. The most delicate moment
  25. The ten commandments of Leó Szilárd
  26. “Thanks, Mom. I know…”
  27. Quote of the Day
  28. How do you know when you’re done?
  29. Quote of the Day
  30. “Like catching a fish with your hands…”
  31. Quote of the Day
  32. The great unread
  33. Quote of the Day
  34. Cindy Sherman and the viewer’s vertigo
  35. Quote of the Day
  36. “A plan, however, is necessary, but a plan that is vague…”
  37. Repetition with a difference
  38. “A voice in his head told him to walk away…”
  39. Quote of the Day
  40. Keeping it short
  41. Quote of the Day
  42. Making it long
  43. Quote of the Day
  44. Improvising with the paintbox
  45. Quote of the Day
  46. A modest proposal for NaNoWriMo
  47. Quote of the Day
  48. “A web at once sensuous and logical…”
  49. “She was quite happy to get a chair, or even a toy…”
  50. Reflektions on a life in art
  51. Quote of the Day

October 2013

  1. The lure of the scary story
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. Protecting the throughline
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Fourth time around
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. Won’t somebody please think of the children?
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. The inscription on Brougham Bridge
  10. Richard Strauss’s ten rules of conducting
  11. On the novelist’s couch
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. The real thing
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. This is my best?
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. How will you be remembered?
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. Honor among writers
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. The education of an architect
  22. The last of the magicians
  23. “An exile from the country of the saints…”
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. Toy Story of delight
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. Attacking the synopsis
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. Moss Hart’s train scene, or the importance of slowing things down
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. The stilted and the profane
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. Exploring the terra incognita
  34. “For us, there is only the trying…”
  35. “Karvonen looked out at the view…”
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. The magic feather of randomness
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. A writer’s arms race
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Luca Brasi flubs his lines, or the joy of happy accidents
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. The dreamlife of television
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. “Tools arm the man…”
  46. Attachment, detachment, and spiritual tact
  47. My ten great books #10: Foucault’s Pendulum
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. My ten great books #9: The Silence of the Lambs
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. My ten great books #8: It
  52. Quote of the Day
  53. My ten great books #7: Dictionary of the Khazars
  54. Quote of the Day

September 2013

  1. My ten great books #6: Gravity’s Rainbow
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. “I could buy myself paper, a pen, a pencil and a brush…”
  4. Lewis Carroll on how to write a letter
  5. My ten great books #5: The Phantom Tollbooth
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. My ten great books #4: Labyrinths
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. My ten great books #3: The Magic Mountain
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. My ten great books #2: In Search of Lost Time
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. My ten great books #1: The Annotated Sherlock Holmes
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. The way of the generalist
  16. How is a novelist like a naturalist?
  17. “Kneeling on the bathroom floor was a man’s body…”
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. Beethoven’s metronome, or following the rules you know
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. A choice of tools
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. Feeding the beast
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. Winning the race one hurdle at a time
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. “This soliciting of emptiness, this evacuation…”
  28. Joe Armstrong’s Law of Debugging
  29. “The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker…”
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. How to debug a novel
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. A young person’s guide to The X-Files
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. My skeptical muse
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. The surprising skepticism of The X-Files
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. “The largest and most comprehensive soul…”
  40. Eleven rules from Preston Sturges
  41. “Manuel was watching the man with the books…”
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. The super tinker
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. Music for crappy speakers
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. Why every sale counts
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. The timeline of one novel
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. “Two buckets were easier carried than one…”

August 2013

  1. How is writing like software development?
  2. The end is the beginning is the end
  3. Quote of the Day
  4. Writing a thriller in the real world
  5. Quote of the Day
  6. Wealth, power, and the ship of fools
  7. Quote of the Day
  8. The secret of the Khazars
  9. Quote of the Day
  10. How I discovered Shambhala
  11. Quote of the Day
  12. Gore Vidal on literary competition
  13. A few thoughts on creativity from Aaron Copland
  14. A few coming attractions
  15. Quote of the Day
  16. Mr. Leonard and Mrs. Post
  17. Quote of the Day
  18. Right brain, wrong brain
  19. Quote of the Day
  20. Speeding it up, slowing it down
  21. Quote of the Day
  22. The recursive art of fiction
  23. Quote of the Day
  24. Herbert Spencer on counting syllables
  25. Sergei Rachmaninoff on how to break the rules
  26. Thoughts on an author’s commentary
  27. Quote of the Day
  28. “He found himself studying her face…”
  29. Quote of the Day
  30. Would you want your daughter to be one?
  31. Quote of the Day
  32. A writer’s code
  33. Quote of the Day
  34. Transformed by print
  35. Quote of the Day
  36. “A good traveler has no fixed plans…”
  37. “Remember the wooden-headed…”
  38. “It’s always the other ones who die…”
  39. Quote of the Day
  40. A professional’s goals
  41. Quote of the Day
  42. When Franzen met Oprah
  43. Quote of the Day
  44. So what exactly is genius?
  45. Quote of the Day
  46. A spoonful of sugar
  47. Quote of the Day
  48. The mind of Napoleon
  49. Leonardo’s ink blots
  50. How long does it take to write an epic poem?
  51. “Before her stood the wooden door…”
  52. Quote of the Day
  53. The new normal
  54. Quote of the Day

July 2013

  1. Kubrick at the movies
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. The lost art of the commonplace book
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Zen and the art of browsing
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. The sacred buddle of W.H. Auden
  8. What Newton knew
  9. “She crossed the threshold…”
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. Do novelists have free will? Part 2
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. Do novelists have free will? Part 1
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. The power of serial expertise
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. How Hollywood learned to love the bomb
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. “Beauty is the most dangerous weapon…”
  20. H.P. Lovecraft on the weird art of outlining
  21. “But something else was involved…”
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. The perfect bookstore
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. The waiting game
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. How I learned to love The Vampire Diaries
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. The cuckoo’s example
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. Eric Hoffer on alibis and achievement
  32. Alan Turing on intuition and ingenuity
  33. “A message here that she was supposed to see…”
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. Is this really science fiction?
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. Raising the stakes
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. Man and supermen
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Cooking in progress
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. Jerry Goldsmith on the art of the film score
  44. “This is what you shall do…”
  45. “He saw a word in his mind’s eye…”
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. Thomas Jefferson on how to take a walk
  48. Inventing “The Whale God,” Part 3
  49. Quote of the Day
  50. Inventing “The Whale God,” Part 2
  51. Quote of the Day
  52. Inventing “The Whale God,” Part 1
  53. Quote of the Day

June 2013

  1. Kant vs. the trees
  2. The business of making
  3. “Tzaddikim knew how to be patient…”
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Disrupting the printed page
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. The edge of the canvas
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. Mad Men and the case for shorter seasons
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. The inner game of fiction
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. “Look up!”
  14. Jack Woodford on how to start a story
  15. “It was two hours to Philadelphia…”
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. A few things I don’t like
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. “Make it recognizable!”
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. What do you do on your fiftieth revision?
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. The seasons of a writer’s life
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. The shortest distance between two points
  26. Paul Simon on using all the notes
  27. “Then she saw that there was no way out…”
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. Castles in the air
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. Encountering “The Whale God”
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. Why is evil easier to write than good?
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. Saint Bill of Manhattan
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. Picasso on creation and destruction
  38. William Morris on the life of simplicity
  39. “The old man walked along the Avenue of the Americas…”
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Noir and the limits of control
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. It’s not just an outline; it’s a prototype
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. Netflix Originals and the loss of constraints
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. Star Trek into detachment
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. John Keats on negative capability
  50. “Why, fiddle you must, for all your life…”

May 2013

  1. “Powell stared silently through the glass…”
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. Scrivener and the perils of efficiency
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. The good idea trap
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. A writer’s phase change
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. My Lady Caffeine
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. L.P. Jacks on work and play
  12. Eugène Ionesco on the art of dreaming
  13. “When Maddy went to see Reynard…”
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. What’s a minimalist book lover to do?
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. How to be ambiguous
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. Mad Men and the man behind the curtain
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. The Layla effect
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. Writing on the sidewalk
  24. A few detached thoughts from William Shenstone
  25. “Ethan went into the gallery…”
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. My browsing life
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. Shakespeare and the myth of the idea
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. Writing for others, writing for yourself
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. “They laughed when I sat down to write…”
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. Matisse’s art of revision
  36. Should you imitate Dante or Shakespeare?
  37. “Sharkovsky slid through the narrow opening…”
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. A writer’s family values
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Live from Oak Park
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. The pleasures of underlining
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. In search of quick fixes
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. How is a plot like luggage?
  48. Kurt Gödel applies for citizenship
  49. The head has a body
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. “Or should I call you the Scythian?”
  52. Quote of the Day
  53. The hardware of suspense
  54. Quote of the Day

April 2013

  1. Entering the Eternal Empire
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. Rediscovering the dictionary
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. A letter from Georges Bizet
  6. Thomas Merton on a poet’s logic
  7. More news from all over
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. “He entered the club, leaving the door open…”
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. The real importance of craft
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. The power of clichés
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. The running man
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. I.A. Richards on rhythm and surprise
  18. How is writing like golf?
  19. “When Powell and Wolfe arrived at the club…”
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. The case for traditional publishing
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. My Copley Square
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. A Song of DOS and WordStar
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. How I learned not to play the ukulele
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. Raymond Chandler on exceeding the limits of formula
  30. Niklaus Wirth on the necessity of perfection
  31. “A solitary figure stood near the basketball courts…”
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. Hannibal uncaged
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. The Italian job
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. The Centrifuge
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. Inside Room 237
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. W.H. Murray on the power of commitment
  42. The child behind the fencepost
  43. Roger and me
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. “Gentlemen, we have a warrant…”
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. In the novelist’s kitchen
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. To be or not to be?
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. How Bill Gates invented the Internet
  52. Quote of the Day

March 2013

  1. “A little gratuitous exercise every day…”
  2. “It’s not one particular clever trick…”
  3. David Mamet and the limits of craft
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. “I can’t take much more of this…”
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. A few thoughts on chapters
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. A father’s case for physical books
  10. Quote of the Day
  11. Survival of the envious
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. Anthony Burgess on artistic punctuality
  14. That old book smell
  15. The future of the thriller
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. “I knew you were coming…”
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. Turning pages both ways
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. The classicist and the randomizer
  22. Quote of the Day
  23. Changesbowie
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. John Ruskin on the joy of work
  26. Joss Whedon on the importance of structure
  27. My ideal reader
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. “Someone was here…”
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. The problem of narrative complexity
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. What I learned from Richard Scarry
  34. Quote of the Day
  35. How is a writer like an entrepreneur?
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. Wooing readers from distraction
  38. How is an argument like a table?
  39. My essential writing books
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. “What about the sister?”
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. One year later
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. Starbucks and the narrative third place
  46. Quote of the Day
  47. Books as furniture
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. “A lifetime of standing in thunderstorms…”
  50. F. Scott Fitzgerald on the art of outlining
  51. “Do you know Proudhon?”
  52. Quote of the Day

February 2013

  1. The golden braid of Douglas Hofstadter
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. A reader’s family tree
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Facts with a side of violence
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. Awake in the Dark
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. “The library is on fire…”
  10. A writer’s routine: David Mitchell
  11. Parks and Rec and the comedy of affection
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. “An iris seemed to open on his past…”
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. What is writing like?
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. A lifetime’s work in one gigabyte
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. The art of making choices
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. The best words in the best order
  22. “Writing won’t be so bad once you get into it…”
  23. “I’m sure he had no trouble remembering you…”
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. How to give criticism
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. How to take criticism
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. Quentin Tarantino and the violence of restraint
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. The wisdom of a poet laureate
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. “The text is a pretext…”
  34. How are poems like ham cubes?
  35. Critical television studies
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. “The following morning, a few blocks from the courthouse…”
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. Are prologues passé?
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. The minimum effective dose for writers
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. Swimming with sharks on House of Cards
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. “We will feel assent in our quickening pulse…”
  46. “The novel is marriage. Poetry is infidelity…”
  47. Making the impossible plausible
  48. Quote of the Day

January 2013

  1. “Standing before the counter of the hardware store…”
  2. Quote of the Day
  3. A life’s work in half an hour
  4. Quote of the Day
  5. Maybe backstory isn’t so bad after all
  6. Quote of the Day
  7. The seductions of structure
  8. Quote of the Day
  9. “For instance, if you grow up odd…”
  10. “Poetry is a centaur…”
  11. The Way of Mario
  12. Quote of the Day
  13. “We’re standing at the tip of a very interesting triangle…”
  14. Quote of the Day
  15. The Best Movies of 2012, Part 2
  16. Quote of the Day
  17. The Best Movies of 2012, Part 1
  18. Quote of the Day
  19. Goodbye, cinephilia
  20. Quote of the Day
  21. Thomas Jefferson’s notebook
  22. “The end of writing is the poem itself…”
  23. A writer’s reflections on violence
  24. Quote of the Day
  25. “The boy in the cooler was looking rather the worse for wear…”
  26. Quote of the Day
  27. The starlet’s dilemma
  28. Quote of the Day
  29. The road to a classical education
  30. Quote of the Day
  31. What I need to do better
  32. Quote of the Day
  33. The simple rule of rugs
  34. A short lesson on poetic economy
  35. Let’s twist again, like we did last summer
  36. Quote of the Day
  37. “You know who Walter Arensberg was…”
  38. Quote of the Day
  39. Using the narrative funnel
  40. Quote of the Day
  41. Learning from the masters: Stephen King and The Shining
  42. Quote of the Day
  43. Weaving a big enough basket
  44. Quote of the Day
  45. Playing billiards with Robert Louis Stevenson
  46. “If there are ten readers out there…”
  47. Don’t look in the mirror
  48. Quote of the Day
  49. “Tell Sharkovsky that I’m coming…”
  50. Quote of the Day
  51. Books for a long journey
  52. Quote of the Day
  53. Reflections on an interesting year
  54. Quote of the Day

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