Happy March! Today I’m sharing a powerful quote, along with one of my absolute favorite stories about Agatha Christie. I think it says so much about who she was.
Agatha Said:
“I do not enjoy big parties, but I can go to them, and whatever I feel is not really shyness. I suppose, actually, the feeling is — I don’t know whether every author feels it, but I think quite a lot do — that I am pretending to be something I am not, because, even nowadays, I do not quite feel as though I am an author. I still have that overlag of feeling that I am pretending to be an author.”
Happy February! I started this series of Agatha Christie quotes with the intention of sharing one on the first Wednesday of each month. However, the world keeps imploding on the first Wednesday of each month—election results, insurrections. And out of respect, I have been skipping those days. But thankfully, the world seems stable today (fingers crossed!), so I’m back to it!
Agatha Said:
“The trouble is that it is awfully hard for an author to put things in words when you have to do it in the course of conversation. You can do it with a pencil in your hand, or sitting in front of your typewriter — then the thing comes out already formed as it should come out — but you can’t describe things that you are only going to write; or at least I can’t. I learnt in the end never to say anything about a book before it was written. Criticism after you have written it is helpful. You can argue the point, or you can give in, but at least you know how it has struck one reader. Your own description of what you are going to write, however, sounds so futile, that to be told kindly that it won’t do meets with your instant agreement.”
Jane Austen, ever the insightful observer, offered witty and intricately crafted statements regarding the culture surrounding her. Had Twitter exited in her day, I imagine she would have stepped into the fray, cautiously, appalled by some users, intrigued by others.
And always, ever, observing and finding inspiration in the humans around her.
What do you think? Did I do justice to the beloved First Lady of Literature?
