Words I Wish I Wrote (Robert Fulghum)
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.
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.
Robert Fulghum (1938-) 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.