{"id":114501,"date":"2017-09-12T07:01:20","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T11:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=114501"},"modified":"2017-09-11T18:10:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T22:10:32","slug":"free-pencil-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/12\/free-pencil-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcing: Free Pencil Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cSometimes just the pure luxury of long beautiful pencils charges me with energy and invention.\u201d \u2014John Steinbeck, The Art of Fiction No. 45<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pencils are a writer\u2019s best friend\u2014we\u2019ve got sixty-four years of testimonials to prove it. We also have a few extra\u00a0pencils … which is why we\u2019re offering a special back-to-school\u00a0offer.<\/p>\n

Subscribe\u00a0to The Paris Review<\/em> and we\u2019ll send you\u00a0ten Paris Review<\/em> pencils (no. 2, of course). For one day only\u2014subscribe now<\/a>!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not picky, but my preference is for yellow legal pads and a nice number two pencil.\u201d \u2014Toni Morrison, The Art of Fiction, No. 134<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe writer doesn\u2019t need economic freedom. All he needs is a pencil and some paper.\u201d \u2014William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI like the feel that a pen or pencil gives you, being in close touch with the paper and with nothing mechanical between you and it.\u201d \u2014Shelby Foote, The Art of Fiction No. 158<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWearing down seven number-two pencils is a good day\u2019s work.\u201d \u2014Ernest Hemingway, The Art of Fiction No. 21<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the time I was nine or ten, it was a toss-up whether I was going to be a writer or a painter, and I discovered by the time I was sixteen or seventeen that paints cost too much money, so I became a writer because you could be a writer with a pencil and a penny notebook.\u201d \u2014Frank O\u2019Connor, The Art of Fiction No. 19<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are all kinds of ways to forget how frightened and disoriented you are. But I think one of the best is to take pencil and paper\u2014which is all you need, thank heavens, to be a poet and which makes it possible to practice poetry in a foxhole\u2014and organize, not the whole of it, because of course you cannot put the world in order, but make some little pattern\u2014make an experience.\u201d \u2014Richard Wilbur, The Art of Poetry No. 22<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI realized how lucky I was because my tools were simple<\/span>\u2014<\/span><\/i>I could borrow a pencil or paper; I could write on napkins or paper bags. I\u2019d walk around with a pen or pencil and I\u2019d discover poems everywhere.\u201d \u2014August Wilson, The Art of Theater No. 14<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI write with a felt-tip pen, or sometimes a pencil, on yellow or white legal pads, that fetish of American writers. I like the slowness of writing by hand.\u201d \u2014Susan Sontag, The Art of Fiction No. 143<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was at Sarah Lawrence, my music teacher told me that if I wanted to keep at the same level of skill at playing the piano I\u2019d have to practice four or five hours a day just to stay where I was. And that did not appeal. And also I thought it would be easier to go through life with a pencil rather than a Steinway.\u201d \u2014Carolyn Kizer, The Art of Poetry No. 81<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI solve all the problems with the pencil.\u201d \u2014William Weaver, The Art of Translation No. 3<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy schedule is flexible, but I am rather particular about my instruments: lined Bristol cards and well sharpened, not too hard, pencils capped with erasers.\u201d \u2014Vladimir Nabokov, The Art of Fiction No. 40<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy memory is certainly in my hands. I can remember things only if I have a pencil and I can write with it and I can play with it.\u201d \u2014Rebecca West, The Art of Fiction No. 65<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPad and pencil. I want to see it, I want to see them all out in front of me, each one of the pencil adaptations, the pencil notations, and the pencil notations crossed out, and the pen on top of the pencil, and the pages \u2026 \u201d \u2014David Mamet, The Art of Theater No. 11<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What further recommendations do you need? Buy a subscription today<\/a> and we will send you a package of ten limited-edition \u00a0no. 2 Paris Review<\/em> pencils.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cSometimes just the pure luxury of long beautiful pencils charges me with energy and invention.\u201d \u2014John Steinbeck, The Art of Fiction No. 45 Pencils are a writer\u2019s best friend\u2014we\u2019ve got sixty-four years of testimonials to prove it. We also have a few extra\u00a0pencils … which is why we\u2019re offering a special back-to-school\u00a0offer. Subscribe\u00a0to The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2559],"tags":[571,30288,5151,2660,7210,16106,12818,3829,3581,10113],"class_list":["post-114501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin","tag-ernest-hemingway","tag-frank-oconnor","tag-john-steinbeck","tag-nicholson-baker","tag-pencils","tag-richard-wilbur","tag-shelby-foote","tag-toni-morrison","tag-william-faulkner","tag-writers-at-work"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWriters on Pencils<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A collection of thoughts on pencils from our Writers at Work interview series.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/12\/free-pencil-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Announcing: Free Pencil Day! 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