The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “letters”

What Makes a Great City: Anaïs Nin on the Poetics of New York
What Makes a Great City: Anaïs Nin on the Poetics of New York

“Just bring your own contents, and you create a sparkle of the highest power.”

read article

How Alfred Hitchcock Changed One Boy’s Life
How Alfred Hitchcock Changed One Boy’s Life

“Many times it takes such a spark as this to help a youngster out of his shell and on the road to confidence.”

read article

The Interplay of Inspiration and Work Ethic: Tchaikovsky on Creativity and Productivity
The Interplay of Inspiration and Work Ethic: Tchaikovsky on Creativity and Productivity

“A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.”

read article

This Is a Monomania: Balzac on Falling in Love
This Is a Monomania: Balzac on Falling in Love

“I cannot bring together two ideas that you do not interpose yourself between them.”

read article

18-Year-Old Sylvia Plath on Loving Everybody and Living with Curiosity
18-Year-Old Sylvia Plath on Loving Everybody and Living with Curiosity

“Every story, every incident, every bit of conversation is raw material for me.”

read article

A Lesson in Entrepreneurship, Perseverance and Publishing from Iconic Chef Julia Child
A Lesson in Entrepreneurship, Perseverance and Publishing from Iconic Chef Julia Child

“Don’t for the love of heaven let anybody rush you into anything.”

read article

Henry Miller on the Beautiful Balance of Giving and Receiving
Henry Miller on the Beautiful Balance of Giving and Receiving

“It’s only when we demand that we are hurt.”

read article

Hemingway Shoots His Cat
Hemingway Shoots His Cat

“Have had to shoot people but never anyone I knew and loved for eleven years. Nor anyone that purred with two broken legs.”

read article

Vita Sackville-West’s Love Letter to Virginia Woolf
Vita Sackville-West’s Love Letter to Virginia Woolf

“I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia.”

read article

Fatherly Advice from Famous Dads
Fatherly Advice from Famous Dads

“The secret of success is concentrating interest in life… interest in the small things of nature… In other words to be fully awake to everything.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)