Thoughts on Pen & Ink

I try to jot down in a notebook words or quotations that either impress me right off, or in some way provoke thought on one, two or more ideas. The following six quotations are in no way grand or inspirational, but if nothing else are at least interesting opinions about the art of writing, and the tools we use to do that.

“There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.” — Petrarch

“The Pen is the tongue of the mind” — Horace

“No pen, no ink, no table, no room, no time, no quiet, no inclination” — James Joyce

“I am a man-pen. I feel through the pen because of the pen.” — Gustave Flaubert

“The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.” — Norbet Platt

“My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. Ballpoint pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane.” — Graham Greene

And one last excerpt from Jeffrey Deaver, which is something I included in an earlier post this past March. Again, the novelist wrote in a 1999 book:

“Handwriting is a part of a human being. Like our sense of humor or imagination. It’s one of the only things about people that survives their death. Writing can last for hundreds of years. Thousands. It’s about as close to immortality as we can get. Whatever somebody wrote is a reflection of who they are. It doesn’t matter how the words are made or what they say, even if they’re mistaken or nonsensical. Just the fact that someone thought of the words and their hands committed them to paper is what counts. I’ve always thought of handwriting as a fingerprint of the heart and mind.”