Don’t
have the time or attention span for full novels at the moment? Here are seven Twitter accounts you should follow for lit / alt-lit quotes and musings that
might help you find yourself (sorry, don’t mean to sound pretentious and
dramatic, but @itsSylviaPlath is the
place where I have re-evaluated my life and felt like a hand had reached out
through my phone and held mine…). Not your kind of thing? (Really?) Regardless,
follow these accounts anyway; you might find words you wish you had written.
1. Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates)
Author
of over forty novels and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, tweeting topics ranging from
education and gender issues, to writing, and to cats.
A few gems:
My ideal college would not admit
“well-rounded” students at all. Expecting excellence in many areas is
unrealistic & encourages subterfuge.
Envy our cats lying by windows in
winter observing birds at feeder, deep-throated growls, swishing tails, &
no harm to anyone.
First rule of journalism—“Interesting,
if true.”
Fiction / poetry have no perimeters.
Strange how the instinct to censor does not start with
oneself. Only others.
2. Sylvia Plath (@itssylviaplath)
This
one needs no introduction. For the introspective souls (or any breathing soul,
really), this account is a temporary retreat into words that were written to
sink beneath skin.
A few gems:
I shall be a heroine of the peripheral.
Let me not be weak and tell others how
bleeding I am internally; how day by day it drips, and gathers, and congeals.
I am already in another world – or
between two worlds, one dead, the other dying to be born.
I am learning how to compromise the
wild dream ideals and the necessary realities without such screaming pain.
3. Winterson Words (@wintersonwords)
Author
of books such as Written On The Body
and Gut Symmetries, Jeanette
Winterson writes about love and identity (amongst other topics) so fluidly and
intensely that every word feels like a fiery and consuming blow to your gut.
This account is a collection of her words, and its description is apt: “things
you wish you had written / words to inspire you”.
A few gems:
Beige and magnolia and a hint of pink
are what the well-decorated heart is wearing; who wants my blood red and
vein-blue?
What should I do about the wild and
tame? The wild heart that wants to be free, and the tame heart that wants to
come home.
The probability of separate worlds
meeting is very small. The lure of it is immense. We send starships. We fall in
love.
Kiss me with the hollow of your mouth,
the excavation where the words are dug, the words sanded under time.
4. Warsan Shire (@warsan_shire)
Poet
and author of the brilliant Teaching My
Mother How To Give Birth, Warsan Shire tweets many of her own poignant
gems, as well as her favourite quotes.
A few gems:
‘some people underestimate how erotic
it is to be understood.’ – mary rakow
even your emptiness is plagiarised
you raise all my insecurities to the
surface of my skin. under the right light i look like i’m adorned with flowers
It’s not my responsibility to be beautiful, I’m not alive
for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.
5. Murakami Fan (@haruki_tweets)
Follow
this account if you have no time for the million-paged 1Q84, but would like to soak up Murakami’s genius 140 characters at
a time.
A few gems:
If I stayed here, something inside me
would be lost forever – something I couldn’t afford to lose.
Chance encounters keep us going.
I can bear any pain as long as it has
meaning.
It’s only after I become completely
empty that I am capable of creating something.
6. NietzscheQuotes (@NietzscheQuotes)
This German philosopher needs no introduction
either. Follow this account to find timeless Nietzsche quotes other than the
oft-quoted “And those who were seen dancing…” I didn’t even have to finish
writing that did I?
A few gems:
Of all that is written, I love only what a man has written with his own
blood.
Insanity in individuals is rare – but in groups, parties, nations and
epochs, it is the rule.
Art is the proper task of life.
I cut myself dreaming.
7. Andrew Goldspink
(@AndrewGoldspink)
His
Twitter bio: “Writer and Musician”. So there you go. This twitter account is
not filled with “literary quotes” per se, but his thoughts and musings.
A few gems:
To look for someone who is as intense
as you is the most human thing.
Life is a series of nightmares
tangentially related to each other
I don’t think there’s such a thing as a
synonym
When I talk I see the words, some are more grey and less
black because they are undecided
