iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 4h

"At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation and prejudice." –Gore Vidal (born Eugene Louis Vidal) (1925–2012) From "Sex and the Law," Partisan Review, Vol. 32 No. 1 (Winter 1965), p. 86 #gorevidal #quotes #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

“I know better than to take life directions from someone without a moral compass.” --Oyinkan Braithwaite (1988- ) Spoken by Korede, in “My Sister, the Serial Killer” (2018) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #oyinkanbraithwaite

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"If you want to be a good writer, write what you deeply feel you should write, not what you feel the audience will like." –Zaynab Alkali (b. 1950s) First female novelist from Northern Nigeria From an interview with the Kaduna Book and Arts Festival #writerslift #amwriting #quotes #zaynabalkali

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

“Part of our leadership is understanding that you can't change what other people think of you, but you can change how you react to their thinking and how you respond to it.” --Stacey Yvonne Abrams (b. 1973) (widely quoted; original source unverified) #life #coffee #diary #quotes #staceyabrams

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"Some of my best friends never agree with me politically." –Harry S. Truman (1884–1972), 33rd President of the United States Said to a group of four freshman congressmen (2 July 1947) As recalled in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (1978), p. 44 #life #love #coffee #quotes #harrystruman #richardnixon

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"And I knew that if things were going to improve, I was the one responsible for making it happen." –James Clear From Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (2018) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #jamesclear

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

“When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. --Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel (1928–2016) From an interview in “O, The Oprah Magazine” (November 2000) #life #love #coffee #quotes #eliezerwiesel

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch – what make you go beyond the norm. The choices of roles I made had to do with educating and entertaining. And as a result, I found myself working only every two or three years.”

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

When a new perfume turns out to be an accidental aphrodisiac, a struggling perfumer must fix the formula, survive a national recall, and navigate two complicated women before his second chance self-destructs. "Making Scents" - Amazon.com: www.amazon.com/dp/B0H61WQBM1 Info: author.wiegand.org

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

“There are only two things a child will share willingly—communicable diseases and his mother's age.” --Attributed to Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903–1998) (widely quoted; original source unverified) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #drspock

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

“You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down.” --Mary Pickford (Gladys Marie Smith) (1892–1979) From “Why Not Try God?” (1934) with Adela Rogers St. Johns Serialized in the St. Petersburg Times, 25 January 1936

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Oh, you who read some song that I have sung, What know you of the soul from whence it sprung?" –Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) From the prefatory poem to Poems of Passion (1883) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #ellawilcox

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you." --Paulo Coelho (b. 1947) Spoken by the character Santiago in “The Alchemist” “O Alquimista” 1988, Part Two English translation by Alan R. Clarke (1993) #life #authors #love #coffee #diary #write #books #quotes #paulocoelho

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly." –Sam Keen (born Samuel McMurray Keen) (1931–2025) From “To Love and Be Loved” (1997) #writerslift #life #authors #love #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #samkeen #misattributions

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"Love can't be pinned down by a definition, and it certainly can't be proved, any more than anything else important in life can be proved." –Madeleine L'Engle (Madeleine L'Engle Camp) (1918–2007) From “A Circle of Quiet” (1972), Book One of “The Crosswicks Journals” #love #quotes #madeleinelengle

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.” --Judy Blume (born Judy Sussman) (1938- )

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

“More than a traveler, I’m a displacer. In other words, I’m a person who is constantly meditating on what it means not to arrive at a place, but to be on my way somewhere else.” --Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman (1942- )

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

“Moreover, about one-quarter of the $14,000,000,000 of probable increased New Deal debt will rest on the farm as a super-mortgage. Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.” --Herbert Clark Hoover (1874–1964) 31st Pres. of the USA Address at the Nebraska Rep. Con. (Jan 1936)

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

“Life forces enough final decisions on us," Mrs. Oastler continued. "We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.” --John Winslow Irving (1942- ) From “Until I Find You” (2005) Spoken by the character Leslie Oastler

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A struggling perfumer’s comeback fragrance becomes a nightmare when it triggers dangerous aphrodisiac effects, sparks a national recall, and forces him to choose between saving his career and untangling his heart. Now Available on Amazon.com: www.amazon.com/dp/B0H61WQBM1 author.wiegand.org

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

“Now prosperous crime / Is called by virtue’s name; good men obey / The guilty, might is counted right, and fear / O’ershadows law.” --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BC – A.D. 65) From “Hercules Furens” (The Madness of Hercules) lines 251-253 (Amphitryon) #life #love #art #coffee #books #quotes #Seneca

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before." –Neil Gaiman (1960- ) From "Gunpowder treason and plot," Neil Gaiman's Journal (5 November 2004) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #neilgaiman

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

“The sports page records people's accomplishments, the front page usually records nothing but man's failures.” --William Lyon Phelps (1865–1943) “Autobiography with Letters” (1939), paraphrased #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #willionphelps

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

"From the very nature of progress, all ages must be transitional. If they were not, the world would be at a stand-still and death would speedily ensue. It is one of the tamest of platitudes but it is always introduced by a flourish of trumpets." –Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

A desperate perfumer bets everything on a breakthrough scent, only to discover it’s an accidental aphrodisiac. As the recall spreads and emotions collide, his last shot at redemption starts slipping away. Now Available on Amazon.com: www.amazon.com/dp/B0H61WQBM1 Info: author.wiegand.org

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

“I handed in a script last year and the studio didn't change one word. The word they didn't change was on page 87.” --Steve Martin (born Stephen Glenn Martin) (1945- ) Hosting the 75th Academy Awards, March 23, 2003, introducing Best Adapted Screenplay #authors #quotes #stevemartin

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

“We must believe in free will — we have no choice.” --Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) From a remark he repeated in interviews over many years; quoted by Stefan Kanfer in “City Journal” (Summer 1997) #writerslift #life #authors #love #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #isaacsinger

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

“I'm crazy enough to believe that the happiest man on earth is the man with the fewest needs.” --Henry Valentine Miller (1891–1980) From “The Colossus of Maroussi” (1941) Part 2, p. 133 #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #HenryMiller

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

“We do not need presidents who are bigger than the country, but rather ones who speak for it and support it.” --Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy (1916–2005) From “The Hard Years: A Look at Contemporary America and American Institutions,” Viking Press, 1975 #life #coffee #write #quotes #JosephMcCarthy

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

“But, (to use a Piece of common Sense) our Geese are but Geese tho' we may think 'em Swans; and Truth will be Truth tho' it sometimes prove mortifying and distasteful.” --Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain" (1725) #life #quotes #benjaminfranklin

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

“People don't ever seem to realise that doing what's right's no guarantee against misfortune.” --William McFee (1881–1966) From “Casuals of the Sea: The Voyage of a Soul” (1916) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #williamccfee

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

“It’s lovely to know the world can’t interfere with the inside of your head.” --Frank McCourt (born Francis McCourt) (1930–2009) From “Angela's Ashes” (1996) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #FrankMcCourt

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

A struggling perfumer. A stolen bottle. A fragrance with dangerous side effects.

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

“The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” --Shirley MacLaine (b. Shirley MacLean Beaty) (1934- ) From “Don't Fall Off the Mountain” (1970) #writerslift #life #authors #love #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #shirleymaclaine

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

“One thing has always been true: That book or that person who can give me an idea or a new slant on an old idea is my friend.” --Louis Dearborn L'Amour (1908–1988) From “Education of a Wandering Man: A Memoir” (1989) #writerslift #life #authors #coffee #write #books #amwriting #quotes #louislamour

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

“In fact, not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.” --Anne Lamott (1954- ) From “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, 1999 #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #annelamott

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

“Truly nothing is to be expected but the unexpected.” --Alice James (1848-1892) Diary entry, April 24, 1891 As quoted in “Alice James, Her Brothers — Her Journal” (1934) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #alicejames

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

When a new perfume turns out to be an accidental aphrodisiac, a struggling perfumer must fix the formula, survive a national recall, and navigate two complicated women before his second chance self-destructs. Now Available on Amazon.com: www.amazon.com/dp/B0H61WQBM1 Info: author.wiegand.org

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

“Life forces enough final decisions on us," Mrs. Oastler continued. "We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.”
--John Winslow Irving (1942- )
From “Until I Find You” (2005) Spoken by the character Leslie Oastler

#writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #JohnIrving

The sentence sorts decisions into two piles. Some close a door permanently, and life will hand you a steady supply of those whether you want them or not. The rest only look permanent. Mrs. Oastler is not advising courage about the first kind, which would be pointless. She is saying stop manufacturing extra ones. It is counsel about restraint.

In this particular novel, almost nobody in it takes the advice. Every major character in "Until I Find You" has been marked for life, some by ink and some by abandonment or abuse. The whole book is built on permanence: tattoos that cannot come off, a father who never came back, memories that turn out to have been lies. A warning about needless finality arrives among people already covered in it.

There is a wrinkle behind the book worth knowing. Irving wrote all eight hundred pages in first person, then judged the material too close to his own life, delayed publication, and rewrote the entire thing in third. Most writers would treat a finished manuscript as final. He treated it as one of the decisions that only looked that way.

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

“Thank God for the mind. It's the only place where we have freedom of speech.” --Charles Reis Felix (1923–2017) From “Crossing the Sauer: a memoir of World War II” (2002) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #charlesReisFelix

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

“Nonetheless, character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.” --Joan Didion (1934–2021) From "Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power," Vogue (1961)

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

“A big man has no time really to do anything but just sit and be big.” --Francis Scott Key (F. Scott) Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) Spoken by the character Amory Blaine, in “This Side of Paradise” (1920) #writerslift #life #authors #love #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #fscottfitzgerold

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

“The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you'll grow out of it.” --Doris Day (born Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff) (1922–2019) As quoted in “Doris Day : Her Own Story” (1975) as told to A. E. Hotchner #writerslift #life #authors #love #coffee #diary #write #quotes #dorisday

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

“You can't sweep other people off their feet, if you can't be swept off your own.” --Clarence Shepherd Day, Jr. (1874–1935) From “The Crow's Nest” (1921) #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #clarenceshepherdday

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

My novel - "Heartbeats Across Borders" www.amazon.com/dp/B0D76PKHTG Newly widowed after 28 years of marriage, 50-year-old Jonathan doesn’t know what he wants out of life. Love? Adventure? A new career? For more info visit: author.wiegand.org #books #reading #author #life #Heartwarming #heart

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

“This is why I say to young actors and young actresses... learn to breathe; learn to speak; but first, learn to feel.” --Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur) (1905–1977) From an interview at Town Hall, New York, April 8, 1973 #life #love #coffee #write #books #amwriting #quotes #JoanCrawford

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

“Life is an adventure in forgiveness.” --Attributed to Norman Cousins (1915-1990) No primary source found #writerslift #life #authors #love #art #coffee #diary #write #books #amwriting #quotes #Misattributed #NormanCousins

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Author Charles Wiegand @charleswiegand.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

“Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.” --Truman Garcia Capote (1924–1984) “The Art of Fiction No. 17,” The Paris Review, Spring-Summer 1957

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