Wait for It

“[A] choreographer I know was creating a ballet. He was stuck, and he asked me to come help.

“I said, ‘How could I help you choreograph a ballet?’

“He said, ‘I’d like you to come and sit there while I’m doing it. You’re so judgmental I would find it helpful.’

“So I went to his studio several times while he was making the ballet. I saw the only job that was worse than writing. My idea of pure hell. The dancers sit there waiting for him to come up with something. It would be as if the letters were sitting there, or the words, smoking cigarettes, staring at you, as if to say, ‘Well? OK, come on.’” 

—Fran Lebowitz, humorist and writer, “A Humorist at Work,” The Paris Review, 1993. Image: Edgar Degas.

  • Editorial Comment: Finally, your sentence gets tired of waiting and goes into the kitchen to check the fridge

Peezpix

Eureka Slough

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“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard