More from the Tucson Festival of Books

Quotes and ideas from TFOB authors:

T. Jefferson Parker - On finishing a wonderful book: 

That feeling you get when you can't read anything else for a while after it's done.  It changes your life for a while

Adam Mansbach - On reading

You can reach a level of intimacy unparalleled in anything else.

Adam Mansbach - On profanity

It's said that profanity is used because the author cannot think of another word. I can always think of another word.  Sometimes, fuck is the right word.  No parent has ever stood over a screaming child at 3 in the morning and said "Go the heck to sleep!"

Merle Reagle -  On the misuse of the language

You're just exasperating the situation ..... it gets to the point, but it's wrong!

Merle Reagle -  On clues he couldn't use in a puzzle, but had to share with us

Tyne Daley's take on 50 Shades of Grey -  Gag Me and Lace Me

Aaron Paul was a meth head actor in Breaking Bad (meth head.... method.... ugh! puns!)

In rap music, the C is silent.

Leonard Pitts - On America, American history, and Americans

Black people are missing from history books after the Civil War up to Rosa Parks.  But we were here.

The best love poem ever written was created with the feet of slaves walking thousands of miles to find - perhaps - their loved ones. (This is the theme of his novel, Freeman.)

America's Spiritual Secession - If we disagree, we cannot talk.  We have problems but we are not talking about them.

America has decided to incarcerate black folks, and the consequences are staggering.  

We have begun the repeal of the 20th century.

Jean Kwok - On writing fiction

It is the one medium where you can really feel like you are inhabiting the character.

Carol Cassella - On reading and writing

Did you ever find yourself rereading a sentence, over and over again, because the language was so beautiful?

And then there were the books the speakers recommended.  I'll list them here, in no particular order.

 Grace Paley - Just as I Thought

Adam Mansbach - The End of the Jews

Leon Litwak - Been in the Storm So Long

The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander

Becoming Dad - Leonard Pitts 

Ben Fountain - Brief Encounters with Che Guevara

Slavery by Another Name - A documentary film shown at Sundance and on PBS  

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Next year's festival will be held here in Tucson March 12-13, 2016.  Be there or be square.