QUOTATIONS THAT INSPIRED ME
(1) We must learn to
reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake
us even in our soundest sleep. (Henry David Thoreau in "Walden")
(2) "People hurry by so quickly don't they hear the melodies..." (Joni Mitchell, "Songs
To Aging Children Come")
(3) We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity, when the only continuity possible, in life as in love,
is in growth, in fluidity--in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners
in the same pattern. (Anne Morrow Lindbergh in "Gift From The Sea")
(4) "When you write a story, you're telling yourself
the story," he said. "When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story."
(from Stephen King's "On Writing": A Memoir Of The Craft)
(5) Through the lean years, I held to five rules for writing and living:
Show up; pay attention; tell your truth; do your best; don't be attached to the outcomes. "Show
up" means sitting down in the chair in front of your computer or writing pad. "Pay attention" means
to look, listen, touch, smell, taste of life and write for the senses; then read your writing, notice the weaknesses,
and improve your work. "Tell your truth" means to write as you only can, for no one else can write exactly
as you do. "Do your best" means constant rewriting until you are certain you cannot improve another sentence
or word--then setting it aside for awhile before doing an even better draft. "Don't be attached to outcomes"
means you cannot control the outcomes, only the effort--that the effort itself is success. (Dan Millman in the chapter
"Writer, Teacher, Peaceful Warrior" in the book "Chicken Soup For The Writer's
Soul")
(6) God
doesn't look at how much we do, but with how much love we do it. (Mother Teresa)
(7)
To write a poem you must have a streak of arrogance....By arrogance I mean that when you are writing you must assume that
the next thing you put down belongs not for reasons of logic, good sense, or narrative development, but because you put it
there. You, the same person who said that, also said this. The adhesive force is your way of writing, not sensible
connection. (Richard Hugo in "The Triggering Town")
(8) Our talents are the gift that God gives to us... What we make of our talents is our gift back
to God. (Leo
Buscaglia)
(9)
Yes, you must feel when you write, free. You must disentangle all oughts. You must disconnect all shackles, weights,
obligations, all duties. You can write as badly as want to. You can write anything you want to,--a six-act blank
verse, symbolic tragedy or a vulgar short, short story. Just so that you write it with honesty and gusto, and do not
try to make somebody believe that you are smarter than you are. What's the use? You can never be smarter than
you are. You try to be and everybody sees through it like glass, and on top of that knows you are lying and putting
on airs. (Though remember this: while your writing can never be brighter, greater than you are, you can hide a
shining personality and gift in a cloud of dry, timid writing.) (Brenda Ueland in "If
You Want To Write")
(10) He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain
what he cannot lose. (Jim Elliot)
(11)
The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him. (Henry David Thoreau in
"Walden")
(12) The hero
is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.
The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light. (Felix Adler)
(13) "So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of
its own." Matt. 6:34 (Jerusalem Bible)
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Some of these quotes are directly about the writing process and others are about ordering your life
in such a way that you never run out of material to write. Maintaining your sense of wonder is certainly essential for
any writer. No one likes a jaded writer. A writer always has to balance different parts of his/her life, family,
work, public and even private life. Somehow all these quotes are connected with the different roles ones holds.
I hope some of these quotes will inspire you as they have done for me.
Siggy
