Quote of the Day (Chris Offutt, Distinguishing Between a Short Story and a Novel)

“A short story is like taking a small boat to sea and traveling along the coast. You can hear the sounds and see the lights of shore. A novel is like taking a ship straight out into the ocean until there is no land in sight.” —American novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, and essayist Chris Offutt quoted by Bradley Sides and Chapter16.org, “Human Drama: Q&A With Novelist Chris Offutt,” Pursuit Magazine, July 21, 2023

Quote of the Day (Chris Offutt, on the CIA and Cooking)

“An unfortunate truth of espionage is that the public only hears about the errors of the CIA; their success stories are never revealed. The opposite is the case for cooking—culinary flops are forgotten while the great meals are remembered long after. The smart cook strives for the best of both worlds—in the field and the kitchen—behaving as a clandestine operative of cuisine. Here are the essential rules for cooks and spies: Discard your failures swiftly. Learn from mistakes. Identify saboteurs such as a clumsy prep-cook or a spouse who hides the salt. Take credit for others’ work and blame your mistakes on underlings. Most importantly: keep your top recipes secret.”  —Chris Offutt, “CIA Cake and Jeff Davis Pie,” Oxford American, Fall 2014

Quote of the Day (Chris Offutt, With Advice for the Aspiring Writer)

“I’m proof that it’s not about talent or intelligence or formal education. My writing career is that it’s about commitment, discipline, and endurance. And that’s what I do here (at Iowa Writers’ Workshop). I maintain the discipline that I committed to twenty years ago and I’m still enduring, maintaining the stamina of a writing life, which is extremely difficult….Writing saved my life as a child and as an adult. And continues to.”—Chris Offutt, in conversation with Anthony Swofford, “An Interview With Chris Offutt,” Tin House, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Summer 2004—The Fiction Issue)

Ten years ago, I took a fiction-writing class with Chris Offutt at the Wesleyan Writers’ Workshop. Those morning sessions mirrored the passion in the above quote, as well as a wild (probably life-saving) sense of humor not so much in evidence in it.

In this interview with Jarhead author Swofford (another former student), Offutt alludes to his background growing up in some of the poorest areas of Kentucky, a part of his life transmuted into short story collections (Kentucky Straight, Out of the Woods), novels (The Good Brother), and memoirs (The Same River Twice). His writing is precise, flinty and, I believe, durable. His work is a joy to read, and his dedication is an inspiration.

Quote of the Day (George Herbert, on Christ and Grief)

“Arise sad heart; if thou dost not withstand,
Christ’s resurrection thine may be;
Do not by hanging down break from the hand
Which, as it riseth, raiseth thee;
Arise, arise;
And with his burial linen dry thine eyes:
Christ left his grave-clothes, that we might,
When grief
Draws tears, or blood, not lack an handkerchief.”—George Herbert, “The Dawning”

This week, I thought I would conduct a little experiment with the “Quote of the Day.” For every day this week, I’ll spotlight some verses—something that this blog, I’ve come to see, does not do enough.

My experiment was inspired by two sources. One was reading, in an essay by David McCullough in an anthology called The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work. The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian quotes the advice that one of his recent subjects, John Adams, gave to son and future President John Quincy: “Read somewhat in the English poets every day. You will find them elegant, entertaining and constructive companions through your whole life." And then this great line: “You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.”

(Young Adams took his father’s advice to heart—really to heart—confessing later in life, “Could I have chosen my own genius and condition, I would have made myself a great poet.” The subject of his major poetic work, Dermot Macmorrogh, Or, the Conquest of Ireland. an Historical Tale of the Twelfth Century, has great interest for me, but it’s probably just as well that he didn’t continue in this line, as reviewers were pretty savage about his work. Like his later follower in the Oval Office, Abraham Lincoln, Adams found a more natural outlet for his writing talent in prose, particularly as exercised in the law and politics.)

The other inspiration for this experiment was a short story writer-novelist-memoirist, Chris Offutt. At a writers’ workshop I attended a decade ago, he advised members of his fiction-writing class to read some lines of poetry every day, because they made you aware of the weight of words.

For the first entry this week, I thought I would start with the above quote—in the manner that John Adams recommended—with the English 17th century “metaphysical” poet George Herbert. It fulfills my own inclination toward spiritual quotes on Sunday. Perhaps just as important, for baby boomers with aging parents, it serves as a powerful reminder of what needs to be borne in mind throughout their struggles—the enduring grace provided by Christ.