Quotes by Chila Woychik, On Being a Rat and Other Observations

“When reading a book, one hopes it doesnt turn into a painful process. Predictable is bad enough. Laborious is acceptable if the labor produces fruit. But with painfully bad writing, all one can do ...”

“Ive had a fountain pen surgically implanted in my left index finger to save trouble. My body is tattooed with line upon line of truth, fiction, and a not-always-pleasing mix of the two.”

“I suck the words word-dryto me, assimilated orderly at breakeye speedstill hard and hardersofter thenline-lined book-drytil not a dropof water-bloodfrom oak and elmand authored menis left to whispe...”

“When I pour a bowl of Uncle Sams cereal, I never know if I should stand when I eat, salute it first, or simply hum the Star Spangled Banner between mouthfuls.”

“Split your skulla hatchet works well enough. Take a more delicate instrumenta scalpel, perhapsand make a hand-sized slit; it doesnt matter where. Reach in (no glove needed), plunge down to the very...”

“This piece of earth I billet grows small. Bullets of time dart past, dropping shards of opportunity at my feet. And until the rift that surrounds my decaying body clamps shutswallows me up like so ...”

“I have a bad habit of dropping verbal pellets to get a reaction, like Ursula LeGuins A novelists business is lying (that particular one got a lot of attention on Facebook), or, Why is it that Chris...”

“Lets face it: suffering discredits goodness. Im agnostic in practice though faith-based in theory. I used to pray but now know hell do what he darn well pleases when he darn well pleases. Will he l...”

“I dont want to believe in boxes or one-way relationships; Im nave, you see. Id rather moon the moon than flip off a friend, but sometimes I flip so I dont get flipped. And I still think Im misunder...”

“I speak, I speak, and truth at that. Writers are a curious breed: brooding, fickle, alternately loving and hating their workand each other. Youre my friend? Dont pick up that pen!”

“sunset and evening star hunching and bending sleeping and slipping virus pneumonia coughing and crying hope in the small things heaven looks brighter aching and falling earth is still darkness slip...”

“Life is flinching in the midst of breathing, gasping at the thought of dying. Its climbing ropeless up sheer rock faces, groping for the next finger-hole of hope. Steady on! Only a thousand feet to...”

“The unrelenting grip of Soldiers Syndrome slips finger by slow finger. The marrows been affectedemotional leukemia at the deepest level. Transplants of love and friendship aid healing, yet time is ...”

“I am Frustration. I am Memory-Lost. Sometimes I read a line a dozen times before it sticks. My creative force has slipped. I type slower, speak slower, think at a snails pace. Im Life shapeshifted ...”

“Without the hard we stay too soft, and heaven is reduced to myths like life. Theology aside, its plain to see that God forbids we get too comfortable.”

“I read a book, am vortexed in with no escape; my face contorts, eyelids frost, breath comes short, body longs, heart stop-starts. Whos to say too much wont kill me? Whos to say I care?”

“Writing is a beast to tame, an energy to transform. Whip that toad into a prince and French kiss it to life. We start at the top but keep looking down, from macro to micro, from what could work to ...”

“You want to get your book to press. You rush it through. Revision number twentydone. Do you really need twenty more? Yes. A half-baked book is a half-birthed child. It aborts, is put on life suppor...”

“The Page awaits the Inspiration even as Inspiration roams the world of man, seeking a Page upon which to unfurl itself, body and soul, bare yet clothed in immortality if not immediacy.And the gods ...”

“If a book can saveredeem us from the mediocrity of the mundanesurely, there must be a God.”