Fun & Famous
WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE YOURSELF
by Maddy Kolk
Better well stolen than poorly conceived, goes the saying. True, true, absolutely true, with one small caveat: always provide source attribution. Always.
Nothing is more painful than a brilliantly found text that is attributed to the wrong person. I once read an obituary that said: ‘Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.’ Below it: Acda & De Munnik. ‘No!’ I shouted at the newspaper, which couldn't do anything about it. Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans, sang John Lennon in the song Beautiful Boy. And actually, the text (probably, no one knows for sure) comes from the mind of writer Allen Saunders, who passed away 30 years ago, so no one can ask him anymore. That's what I mean: always provide source attribution.
Kate Moss, who generally doesn't talk and therefore doesn't feel obliged to provide text and explanation, has said something once, and that is that she lives by the motto ‘never complain, never explain’. It is the credo of her ex Johnny Depp, who has adhered to this adage his whole life: he even bought a private island to not have to explain himself to anyone at all, and there surely isn't much to complain about there on Little Halls Pond Cay in the Bahamas. But Johnny didn't come up with that pointed phrase himself: Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister and writer, did.
Attributing quotes to the wrong people has been around for ages. The last queen of France, Marie Antoinette, is said to have exclaimed: ‘Let them eat cake!’ when she heard that the common people were starving because the bread was gone. Although this quote is often attributed to her, it is very likely that the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau invented it while writing his autobiography.
The absolute lord and master(mistress) in this area at the moment is actually Melania Trump, who during the Republican Convention this year quoted nearly a complete speech from Michelle Obama from 2008 in front of half the world.
Source attribution. So. Prevents a lot of suffering. Correctly quoting can be so much fun, because wisdom and/or sharp humor often comes from unexpected corners. Like this one from – yes – Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl: ‘He had an original thought five years ago. It died of loneliness.’ Of course, it comes across even better with the bedroom eyes and sultry-raspy voice of Ed Westwick, but I've used it more than once to indicate a lack of authenticity. With a quote from Chuck Bass yes, oh irony.
And this one, from Romanian artist Brancusi, hangs on the mirror in the bathroom, to inspire me in the morning (when I have a body part to spare to stay in bed for another hour): ’Things are not difficult to accomplish. What is difficult, is to prepare ourselves to do them.‘
However, one of my favorites I have never been able to use in real life. The quote comes from the book ‘The Stars’ Tennis Balls’ by Stephen Fry and has been burning on my lips for ten years, waiting for the right moment. That moment involves a freshly opened bottle of wine and a possibly pretentious company. After tasting, it sounds like a bell: ‘I wonder how they got the cat to sit on the bottle.‘
I couldn't say it better myself.
