I have been building some shanties of houses connected with the old one. And likewise, some shanties of chapters and essays. I have been plowing and sowing and raising and printing and praying, and now begin to come out upon a less bristling time, and to enjoy the calm prospect of things from a fair piazza at the north of the old farmhouse here.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) author of Moby Dick
“Melville means a lot to me for a number of reasons. He wrote Moby Dick in my hometown of Pittsfield Massachusetts. And, his farmhouse is one that I pass almost every time I’m in Pittsfield. I enjoy this quote because, first of all, it’s about his farmhouse in Pittsfield; it’s about my hometown and the views. But I also like that he’s comparing the construction of a piece of writing to the construction of a house or shanties of houses. The idea that you get a piece of writing that has a structure which is comparable to a physical structure is something I find very beautiful. Obviously, writing can take many different directions, but, you know, you do need a roof and you need some beams, and then you need some decoration. I like that image a lot. I also like the idea that there are times to work and there are times to rest. Each book I’ve written has taken longer than I thought and has sort of consumed more of my time and energy than I expected. When I finish a book or an article he reminds me that it’s then time to take a rest which I find is something very beautiful and very important in these busy times we live in now.”
Mark Vanhoenacker, a long-haul commercial pilot and author of
Imagine a City: A Pilot’s Journey Across the Urban World
