It is the fragrant lack of practicality that makes high-heeled shoes so fascinating: in terms of static mechanics they induce a so...rt of insecurity which some find titillating. If a woman wears a high-heeled shoe it changes the apparent musculature of the leg so that you get an effect of twanging sinew, of tension needing to be released. Her bottom sticks out like an offering. At the same time, the lofty perch is an expression of vulnerability, she is effectively hobbled and unable to escape. There is something arousing about this declaration that she is prepared to sacrifice function for form.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Housework is a breeze. Cooking is a pleasant diversion. Putting up a retaining wall is a lark. But teaching is like climbing a mou...ntain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The fact is that my wife if she had common sense would have more power over me than any other whatsoever, for my heart always alig...hts upon the nearest perch.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Good writing is always a breaking of the soil, clearing away prejudices, pulling up of sour weeds of crooked thinking, stripping t...he turf so as to get at what is fertile beneath. It would be amusing to carry the simile further. Those bulbs that flower in the sand and wither! The gay fiction annual that has to be planted again every year! Those experimental plants from Russia, France, and Greenwich Village that are always getting winter killed--confound 'em!--is it worth while planting them again? The stocky perennial that keeps coming up and coming up--so easy to grow and so ugly. Scarlet sage that gives a touch of fiery sin to the edge of the suburbanite's concrete walk! And then the good flowers--as honest as they are beautiful! The well-ordered gar den! The climbing rose that escapes and is the most beautiful of all!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If you are ambitious of climbing up to the difficult, and in a manner inaccessible, summit of the Temple of Fame, your surest way ...is to leave on one hand the narrow path of Poetry, and follow the narrower track of Knight-Errantry, which in a trice may raise you to an imperial throne.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Flee from the press and dwell with soothfastness; Suffice unto thy good though it be small,... For hoard hath hate and climbing ticklishness, Press hath envy and weal blent overall;LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"Woman is mannes joy and all his bliss." For when I feel a-night your softe side,... Albeit that I may not on you ride, For that our perch is made so narrowe, alas! I am so full of joy and of solace That I defye bothe sweven and dream.'LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The only difference between a man and woman climbing the ladder of success is that a woman is expected to put it in the closet whe...n she's finished with it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Do let him read the papers. But not while you accusingly tiptoe around the room, or perch much like a silent bird of prey on the e...dge of your most uncomfortable chair. (He will read them anyway, and he should read them, so let him choose his own good time.) Don't make a big exit. Just go. But kiss him quickly, before you go, otherwise he might think you are angry; he is used to suspecting he is doing something wrong.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digg...ing, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth. Writing may be interesting, absorbing, exhilirating, racking, relieving. But amusing? Never!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »