A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze. —Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
“Learning to fail well means learning to understand your mistakes, because unless you know what went wrong, you may do the wrong things to correct it.”
― The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success
― The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success
“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”
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“Four guys are standing on a street corner… an American, a Russian, a Chinese man, and an Israeli…. A reporter comes up to the group and says to them: “Excuse me…. What’s your opinion on the meat shortage?” The American says: What’s a shortage? The Russian says: What’s meat? The Chinese man says: What’s an opinion? The Israeli says: What’s “Excuse me”? —MIKE LEIGH, Two Thousand Years”
― Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle
― Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle
Gregus’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Gregus’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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