Jean Paul
Jean Paul
Jean Paul, born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth21 March 1763
CountryGermany
writers-and-writing
Never write on a subject until you have read yourself full of it.
reading writing firsts
Never write on a subject without first having read yourself full on it; and never read on a subject till you have thought yourself hungry on it.
writing eye order
In the nineteenth century one had to give all sorts of guarantees and lead an exemplary life in order to cleanse oneself in the eyes of the bourgeois of the sin of writing, for literature is, in essence, heresy. The situation has not changed except that it is now the Communists, that is, the qualified representatives of the proletariat, who as a matter of principle regard the writer as suspect.
book writing psychology
Then I realized what separated us: what I thought about him could not reach him; it was psychology, the kind they write about in books. But his judgment went through me like a sword and questioned my very right to exist. And it was true, I had always realized it; I hadn't the right to exist. I had appeared by chance, I existed like a stone, a plant or a microbe. My life put out feelers towards small pleasures in every direction. Sometimes it sent out vague signals; at other times I felt nothing more than a harmless buzzing.
writing simple thinking
Many young people today do not concern themselves with style. They think that what one says should be said simply and that is all. For me, style - which does not exclude simplicity, quite the opposite - is above all a way of saying three or four things in one. There is the simple sentence, with its immediate meaning, and then at the same time, below this immediate meaning, other meanings are organized. If one is not capable of giving language this plurality of meaning, then it is not worth the trouble to write.
writing thinking long
I think there is an enormous diference between speaking and writing. One rereads what one writes. But one might read it slowly or quickly. In other words, you do not know how long you will have to spend deliberating over a sentence. ... But if I listen to a tape recorder, the listening time is determined by the speed at which the tape turns and not by my own needs.
writing past men
Everything in my past, in my training, everything that has been most essential in my activity up to now has made me above all a man who writes, and it is too late for that to change.
writing portraits myth
Poetry creates the myth, the prose writer draws its portrait.
dancing develop exercise exercises muscles powers single
Other exercises develop single powers and muscles, but dancing embellishes, exercises, and equalizes all the muscles at once.
body brevity soul
Brevity is the body and soul of wit.
action good ordinary
Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations.
cares die difficult former latter sorrow throw
Cares are often more difficult to throw off than sorrows; the latter die with time, the former grow.
gathered idleness miseries
Idleness is many gathered miseries in one name.
laughs laughter profoundly sad
No one is more profoundly sad as one who laughs too much.