Roy Blount, Jr.
Roy Blount, Jr.
Roy Alton Blount Jr.is an American writer, speaker, reporter, and humorist. He appeared as himself in Treme. He performs with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock band composed entirely of writers. He is also a former president of the Authors Guild...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth4 October 1941
CountryUnited States of America
arbitrary relation scholar
According to scholars of linguistics, the relation between a word and its meaning is arbitrary.
thinking arbitrary wince
I just think lots of words have physicality. How about the word 'wobble?' You think that's arbitrary? When you say the word 'wince,' you wince. How about that?
birthdays books buy easy looking next twelve
There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves.
We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods.
human written
I have written some of the clumsiest, most clogged-yet-vagrant, hobbledehoyish, hitch-slipping sentences ever conceived by the human mind.
pin
The more you try to pin a word down, the more you realize that it has its own cape, sword and little hat.
gin good heavy holds keeps
A good heavy book holds you down. It's an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic.
people southern flavor
Lots of people have expressed consternation that I haven't gotten rid of Southern accent, but I just never saw any reason to lose the flavor that I grew up with. I enjoy saying some things with a Southern accent.
fun thoughtful interesting
It was easy to make fun of Bush, but it was sort of like shooting fish in a barrel and it didn't really feel all that good because it was so easy to do. I would much rather live under a thoughtful president. Even if it makes it harder to be funny about politics, it makes it more interesting to be funny about politics.
fun people
I've never thought it was necessary to make fun of people - you can find fun in people without necessarily mocking them.
thinking president television
Obama's got a great sense of humor, but mainly he has a great thinking presence, which is uncommon. It's hard to imagine being able to do, think over answers and deliver them on television. If I were president I would constantly be spluttering.
sound would-be ifs
Twitter. It's not a good sound, is it? If it were worth doing, there would be a better word for it.
writing thinking smooth
I think what's really hard is making sense and making what you write clear and smooth-flowing.
dog nature cat
I do not know what the cat can have eaten. Usually I know exactly what the cat has eaten. Not only have I fed it to the cat, at the cat's insistence, but the cat has thrown it up on the rug, and someone has tracked it all over onto the other rug. I do not know why cats are such habitual vomiters. They do not seem to enjoy it, judging by the sounds they make while they are doing it. It's their nature. A dog is going to bark. A cat is going to vomit.