Words I Like to Live By, Some of My Own, Some Borrowed from Others

A motto I find useful to live by, on New Year’s Day, and most days: “Stay neutral, lean positive.”

And since I’m quoting myself, here are a couple more coinages of my own:

“Being an editor allows me to express my latent religiosity, since I spend so much time praying for my books.”

“Publishing companies have long been known as ‘houses’ because they (are supposed to) offer hospitality to writers.”

And a Yiddish proverb I found years ago in W.H. Auden’s marvelous A Certain World: A Commonplace Book, a personal anthology of favorite lines and wise quotations the English poet gathered over his lifetime of reading and writing, published in 1970. I treasure my old copy.

“If the rich could hire other people to die for them, the poor could make a comfortable living.”

Happy New Year! Let’s all have a great 2015.