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Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn’t planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I’m not recommending it as a way to write. It’s very sloppy, but it works for me.

Barbara Mertz

Money was the manure of politics.
BARBARA MERTZ

Manure Money Politics
kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.
BARBARA MERTZ

Kissing Mistake Someone
I don’t think she realized how much she cared for him, or he for her, until the end. Hasn’t someone said a woman may be known by the men who love her enough to die for her? (If they haven’t, I claim the credit myself.)
BARBARA MERTZ

Credit Men Thinking
When emotion supersedes reason … gullibility must follow.
BARBARA MERTZ

Emotion Gullibility Reason
Writing is like a bird-watcher watching for birds: the stories are there: you just have to train yourself to look for them.
BARBARA MERTZ

Bird Looks Writing
I had refused Emerson’s well-meant offers of assistance, knowing his efforts would be confined to moving the furniture to the wrong places and demanding how much longer the process would take.
BARBARA MERTZ

Effort Knowing Moving
A man asking for help ought to at least give directions.
BARBARA MERTZ

Asking Giving Help Men
I knew the answer, and–of course–so did Ramses. He has superb breath control and always gets in ahead of me.
BARBARA MERTZ

Answers Courses Superb
Nefret had always had an uncanny ability to read his thoughts. ‘Did she cry?’ she asked sweetly. ‘And then you kissed her? You shouldn’t have done that. I’m sure you meant well, but kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.
BARBARA MERTZ

Done Kissing Mistake
Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.
BARBARA MERTZ

Noble Political Politics
Dogs can be made to feel guilty about anything, including the sins of their owners. Cats refuse to take the blame for anything – including their own sins.
BARBARA MERTZ

Blame Cat Dog
To argue without knowledge is like trying to weave without thread.
BARBARA MERTZ

Arguing Thread Trying
It is easier to counterfeit old age than youth.
BARBARA MERTZ

Age Easier Youth
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family.” “Very boring, Emerson.
BARBARA MERTZ

English Ordinary Sometimes Wonder
It is much more sensible to be an optimist instead of a pessimist, for if one is doomed to disappointment, why experience it in advance?
BARBARA MERTZ

Disappointment Optimist Pessimist
There was no warning, not even a knock. The door flew open, and he forgot his present aches and pains in anticipation of what lay in store. The figure that stood in the door was not that of an enemy. It was worse. It was his mother.
BARBARA MERTZ

Doors Mother Pain

Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn’t planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I’m not recommending it as a way to write. It’s very sloppy, but it works for me.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn’t planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I’m not recommending it as a way to write. It’s very sloppy, but it works for me.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Barbara Mertz Quotes