Dava and Billy talked to eachother and we got to watch!

The morning conversation between Dava Sobel and Billy Collins gave us another dose of their wit and insight. 
Top 10 intriguing things I heard this morning in no particular order

1. Billy Collins likes applause.
2. Going to see Tintern Abbey is a requirement if you have ever taught English literature. It is well worth the trip and by the way it is in Wales. (which would make a good Jeopardy question because most people think its in England.)
3. There are only two kinds of fiction stories – they went on a long journey or a stranger came into town.
There are only two kinds of science fiction stories - We went to them or they came to us.
4. Writers envy of other writers is a naturally occurring phenomena and often serves as a motivator for creativity.
5. 83% of modern poetry is not worth reading. The remaining 17% is great.
6. Facebook threatens our ability to construct artful and grammatically correct prose.
7. Poets are not likely to struggle with work life balance because a lot of being a poet requires sitting around and looking out the window.
8. Although poets seem to have the work life balance thing worked out pretty well, they still have it harder than other kinds of writers because they are confronted with the empty page more often. This leads them to having a slightly higher rate of suicide than other writers because they think things like "There is a limited reservoir of creativity doled out to each writer and one day you may wake up and never be able to write anything worthwhile again."
9. A trick to writing poetry or other things is to be quiet and open to the world unfolding around you.
10. Dava Sobel fell into being a science writer backwards.