Dwight Garner Shares From His Stash of Other Writers’ Words

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all those words and sentences that in all your reading have been to you like the blast of a trumpet out of Shakespeare, Seneca, Moses, John, and Paul. — RALPH WALDO EMERSON For nearly four decades, I’ve kept what’s known as a commonplace book.

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Commonplace Books Are Like a Diary Without the Risk of Annoying Yourself

I’ve never been a journal person, though not for lack of trying. A monogrammed duffel bag in my parents’ basement holds many old diaries — a furry leopard-print one from elementary school, Moleskines with unbroken spines from college — each with an optimistic entry or two.

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