Zitate von Jack London
Jack London
Geburtstag: 12. Januar 1876
Todesdatum: 22. November 1916
Jack London war ein US-amerikanischer Schriftsteller und Journalist. Er erlangte vor allem Bekanntheit durch seine Abenteuerromane Ruf der Wildnis und Wolfsblut sowie durch den mehrfach verfilmten Abenteuerroman Der Seewolf und den autobiographisch beeinflussten Roman Martin Eden. Diese Werke geben gleichzeitig eine Übersicht über die geographischen Räume, die er kannte: den arktischen Norden Nordamerikas zur Zeit des Goldrausches, Kalifornien und den Pazifik bzw. die Seefahrt auf diesem Ozean. Als erfolgreicher Schriftsteller bekannte London sich in seinen politischen Essays, geprägt durch harte Erfahrungen in der Kindheit, häufig zu den unteren Schichten der Gesellschaft und offen zum Sozialismus, wenn auch sehr eigener Prägung. Er war bis kurz vor seinem Tod Mitglied der Socialist Party der Vereinigten Staaten und bewarb sich 1901 für diese Partei erfolglos um das Amt des Bürgermeisters von Oakland. Sein literarisches Werk wurde international erfolgreich und in zahlreiche Sprachen übersetzt. Zu seinen Lebzeiten war London der erfolgreichste Autor der Welt.
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Werk
Zitate Jack London
— Jack London, buch Ruf der Wildnis
The Call of the Wild
The Bulletin, San Francisco, California, December 2, 1916, part 2, p. 1.
Also included in Jack London’s Tales of Adventure, ed. Irving Shepard, Introduction, p. vii (1956)
„Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.“
As quoted in Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior (1991) by Dan Millman, p. 78
Life’s not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.
As quoted in "They Came to Write in Hawai‘i" by Joseph Theroux, in Spirit of Aloha (March/April 2007)
„Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club.“
"Getting into Print", first published in 1903 in The Editor magazine
Variante: You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Kontext: Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.
Kontext: Fiction pays best of all and when it is of fair quality is more easily sold. A good joke will sell quicker than a good poem, and, measured in sweat and blood, will bring better remuneration. Avoid the unhappy ending, the harsh, the brutal, the tragic, the horrible - if you care to see in print things you write. (In this connection don't do as I do, but do as I say.) Humour is the hardest to write, easiest to sell, and best rewarded... Don't write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen. Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.
Variante: "I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." also mentioned as Jack London quote in Ian Fleming book You Only Live Twice (1964), Ch. 21 : Orbit
Quelle: San Francisco Bulletin in 1916. Also included as an introduction to a compilation of Jack London short stories in 1956.
The Bulletin, San Francisco, California, December 2, 1916, part 2, p. 1.
Also included in Jack London’s Tales of Adventure, ed. Irving Shepard, Introduction, p. vii (1956)
Kontext: I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
— Jack London, buch John Barleycorn
Quelle: John Barleycorn (1913), Ch. VI
— Jack London, buch A Piece of Steak
"A Piece of Steak" in The Best Short Stories of Jack London (1962) ISBN 0-449-30053-6
„The Wild still lingered in him and the wolf in him merely slept.“
— Jack London, Index:London - White Fang, 1906.djvu
Quelle: White Fang
"Confession" in Complete Works of Jack London, Delphi Classics, 2013
Variante: Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.
