Quotes From "A Touch Of Wonder" By Arthur Gordon

Rhythm. Life is full of it; words should have it, too. But you have to train your ear. Listen to the waves on a quiet night; you’ll pick up the cadence. Look at the patterns the wind makes in dry sand and you’ll see how syllables in a sentence should fall. Arthur Gordon Arthur Gordon

Words. Just little black marks on paper. Just sounds in the empty air. But think of the power they have! They can make you laugh or cry, love or hate, fight or run away. They can heal or hurt. They even come to look and sound like what they mean. Angry looks angry on the page. Ugly sounds ugly when you say it. Arthur Gordon

You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. Failure is a teacher — a harsh one, perhaps, but the best. You say you have a desk full of rejected manuscripts? That’s great! Every one of those manuscripts was rejected for a reason. Have you pulled them to pieces looking for that reason? You’ve got to put failure to work for you. That’s where you’ll find success. On the far side of failure. . Arthur Gordon

The trouble with ‘if only’ is that it doesn’t change anything. It keeps the person facing the wrong way — backward instead of forward. It wastes time. In the end, if you let it become a habit, it can become a real roadblock — an excuse for not trying anymore. Arthur Gordon

Some criticism, no doubt, is constructive, but too much is a subtle poison. Arthur Gordon

It’s the person who likes to pat dogs to whom dogs come for pats. Arthur Gordon

Let’s not be too harsh where poets are concerned. They have to live in no-man’s-land, halfway between dreams and reality. Arthur Gordon

(It’s) a fair exchange. You’re giving me attention. That’s a form of affection, you know. Arthur Gordon