mills asked: Hey! I love your blog, and am particularly struck by the fact that the quotes you use aren’t those of common compilation, aren’t just drawn from websites. I am curious: do you just note every fascinating quote you encounter in the course of your normal reading and then look through them looking for connections to current pop-culture events, or do you work in the other direction, or both? Do you search for images for quotes, or quotes for images? Either way, it’s (1) great cross-referencing and (2) completely amazing! Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words!
My guilty little secret is goodreads. They have a quote section with a selection that is so much better than, say, Bartleby. Much more up to date. But I do also use lots of quotes from the books I read. Sometimes I think I could use the entirety of Lorrie Moore or Margaret Atwood’s works and pair each and every sentence perfectly with TV images.
My goal for the future is to keep reading works from up-and-coming writers and glean them for quotes. Anything to get exposure for struggling writers, right?
I go both ways with matching quotes and stills. Sometimes, I’ll find a great quote—for instance, I have this spot-on Zadie Smith quote about parents—and I try to think of the show that will match. Probably an ’80s family sitcom.
But it goes the other way, too. I have a still of Jack’s newly revealed son from Lost. And I have been trying to find a quote that references “daddy issues.” Something about sullenness, impetuousness, or the like. I feel like I need to go back into my Mary Karr and see what I can find.
