From OnlineUniversities.com, a cast of successful characters in various disciplines give their thoughts…to perhaps even inspire writers.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From blog maverick. Two defining quotes:
The point of the numbers is that getting a student loan is easy. Too easy. You know who knows that the money is easy better than anyone? The schools that are taking that student loan money in tuition. Which is exactly why they have no problems raising costs for tuition each and every year.
The Higher Education Industry is very analogous to the Newspaper industry. By the time they realize they need to change the costs to support their legacy infrastructure and costs will keep them from getting there.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From The Millions (Hat tip: Frank Wilson)
A large part of On The Road’s powerful and ongoing appeal undoubtedly stems from the lyricism of its language — as opposed to its linearity, or even narrative coherence. Translating this to the screen could quite simply be impossible. Indeed, one suspects it is the reason that, up till now, so many screenwriters have failed in turning Kerouac’s text into visual form.
I much preferred The Dharma Bums.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament Recommended to me by Hazel Taylor at Onlinephdprograms.com, here is a link to “What 50 Famous Authors Want Us to Know About the Writing Process.” I’m not at all certain that they were dying to tell us these things, but being writers, sharing such thoughts tend to come naturally, and this is a nice compendium of advice assembled by Ms. Taylor.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From Flavorwire (Hat tip: Frank Wilson) Flavorwire’s opening comments:
Since we discovered an ongoing crowdsource project called Legacy Libraries, we haven’t been able to tear our eyes away from it. The organization gathers information about the libraries of historical people — authors, artists, scientists, and more. By compiling data from bibliographies, auction catalogs, library holdings, manuscript lists, wills and probate inventories, and from the personal verification of extant copies, Legacy Libraries is able to conjure a snapshot of the titles resting on famous bookshelves.
An interesting list…
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From Roger Ebert’s Journal, Mr Ebert opens with this statement:
I am faced once again with the task of voting in Sight & Sound magazine’s famous poll to determine the greatest films of all time. Apart from my annual year’s best lists, this is the only list I vote in. It is a challenge. After voting in 1972, 1982 and 1992, I came up with these ten titles in 2002:
See his ten at the above link. (I might agree with three of them, but then I don’t have a reputation as a film critic to protect. I’m more interested in whether a movie truly impressed me.)
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From DayRiffer:
Pollsters stack the deck all the time by wording questions a certain way, or by asking questions in a certain order, thereby influencing the answers they’ll get (they want to get). Yet they know that by altering the wording or the order in which the questions are asked, they’ll likely get very different results.
Could it be that one of our most insoluble problems is how we ask our big questions? (I think you can guess my own answer, from the leading way I asked the question.) What if we asked those questions differently?
Well, yes…why not?
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From The New York Review of Books, by Tim Parks. An excerpt:
“I love the new DeLillo.”
“And I hate it.”It’s a familiar conversation: like against dislike with no possible resolution. Or alternatively: “I can’t see why Freedom upsets you so much. I didn’t like it either, but who cares?” Interest against disinterest; as when your wife/brother/friend/colleague raves about some Booker or Pulitzer winner and you feel vaguely guilty. “Sure,” you agree, “great writing, intriguing stuff.” But the truth is you just couldn’t find the energy to finish the book.
So, is there anything we can say about such different responses?
Read the whole thing at the link.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From Kafka Online, “In the Penal Colony” is Kafka’s “dirty story.” (Hat tip: Flavorwire)
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament 
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