Robert Fulghum, the part-time Unitarian minister whose gentle and humorous stories have made him a bestselling author many times over (beginning with All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten), pays tribute to the writers who inspired him in Words I Wish I Wrote. He confesses that at one particularly low moment in the late '50s, he was dredged up from the Slough of Despond by reading the works Albert Camus, whose gaze over a deeper abyss gave Fulghum hope. It was that experience that led Fulghum to seek out writings with uplifting messages. The result is this compilation of brief passages from the likes of Wallace Stevens ("After the final no there comes a yes"), Tom Robbins ("Real courage is risking one's clichés"), and Buckminster Fuller ("God is a verb").


From Library Journal
Publishing phenomenon Fulghum, who declared All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten, must have had some class. Here he sums up the works of thinkers who have influenced him, from Camus to Kafka to Proust.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.



"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole, world, and lose his own soul?



"You can count on how many seeds are in the apple, but not howmany apples are in the seed."



"...in the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones theheart..."



"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good[people] to do nothing"



"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole,world, and lose his own soul?


Mark 8:36
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole, world, and lose his own soul?


Edmund Burke
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing"


Gabriel Garca Marquez
"...in the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart..."


Ken Kearsey
"You can count on how many seeds are in the apple, but not how many apples are in the seed."


Albert Camus
"In the midst of winter, I found there was within me, an invincible summer."


Book Description
In Words I Wish I Wrote, Robert Fulghum reveals the works of writers who have inspired him. During the past four decades he's reviewed and revised the basic principles of his philosophy many times, sometimes as an exercise in personal growth, but more often in response to individual crisis. Then at fifty, seeking a simplicity to counter the complex thinking of his college years, Fulghum wrote a summary essay professing that all he really needed to know he learned in kindergarten. As he approached his sixtieth year, Fulghum became curious about what in his outlook had changed and what had endured. On review, Fulghum explains, everything he has ever said and thought and written is transparent to him now. As hard as he has tried to speak in his own voice, much of what he's said is neither original nor unique. The best ideas are often old and are continually being revived, recycled, renewed. Wherever his search took him, Fulghum found that someone else has been there before. And more often than not, that person has chosen words Fulghum wishes he had written, using language he can't improve upon. To Fulghum, however, this isn't a discouraging realization. It's a recognition n of companionship, which is an affirming consolation. The confirming statements, quotes, and credos that Fulghum recorded in his journals for years are collected here, representing the most important ideas underlying his living and thinking. They are organized thematically into such chapters as Companions, God, Bene-Dictions, Contra-Dictions, Simplify, and Believe. Each begins with Fulghum's own insightful, introductory words, followed by inspiring passages drawn from a diverse group of sources, from Jerry Garcia to Albert Camus, Dylan Thomas to Franz Kafka. At the end of each chapter, Fulghum offers readers his own personal commentary on the sources--where he was introduced to their words, why he returns to them again and again, and how they may change you.


About the Author
Robert Fulghum has made his living as a ditchdigger, cowboy, IBM salesman, folksinger, parish minister, bartender, newspaper columnist, and philosopher.His previous books, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on it, Maybe (Maybe Not), Uh-Oh, From Beginning to End, and True Love, have sold more than fifteen million copies in twentyseven languages in ninety-three countries.He has four children and seven grandchildren.He lives with his wife, a family physician, on a houseboat in Seattle, Washington.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The quotations in Words I Wish I Wrote reflect the most important ideas underlying Fulghum's living and thinking. This is his evidence that, as he's gone about finding his way, he's had great companions. The confirming statements, quotes, and credos that Fulghum recorded in his journals for years are collected here, organized thematically into such chapters as Companions, God, Bene-Dictions, Contra-Dictions, Simplify, Lafter, and Believe. Each begins with Fulghum's own insightful, introductory words, followed by inspiring passages drawn from a diverse group of sources, from Jerry Garcia to Albert Camus, Dylan Thomas to Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust to Beatrix Potter. Then, at the end of each chapter, Fulghum offers readers his own personal commentary on the sources - where he was introduced to their words, why he returns to them again and again, and how they may change you.

FROM THE CRITICS

Albert Camus

In the midst of winter, I found there was within me, an invincible summer.

Edmund Burke

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

...in the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart...

Ken Kearsey