Literary Birthday – 2 February – James Joyce

James Joyce was born 2 February 1882, and died 13 January 1941.

James Joyce Quotes

1. I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.
2. Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why.
3. The artist, like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.
4. Shakespeare is the happy hunting ground of all minds that have lost their balance.
5. When I die, Dublin will be written in my heart.
6. The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole Life to reading my works.
7. What’s in a name? That is what we ask ourselves in childhood when we write the name that we are told is ours.
8. I am quite content to go down to posterity as a scissors and paste man for that seems to me a harsh but not unjust description.
9. Write it, damn you, write it! What else are you good for?
10. I have the words already. What I am seeking is the perfect order of words in the sentence. … You can see for yourself how many different ways they might be arranged.
11. To learn one must be humble. But life is the great teacher.

James Joyce was an Irish novelist. His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, letters, and occasional journalism. One of the most influential writers of the early 20th century, Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness style turned him into a literary celebrity, and the explicit content in his work brought about landmark legal decisions on obscenity. Joyce is best known for writing the novels, Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Finnegans Wake, and the short story collection, Dubliners. He used slipstream fiction techniques in his writing. In popular culture, the work and life of Joyce is celebrated annually on 16 June, known as Bloomsday, in Dublin and in an increasing number of cities worldwide.

Read: 5 Bits Of Writing Advice From James Joyce

Source for image: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2379544

by Amanda Patterson

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