Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life
“Every morning, you MUST love your whims and trust your whims, as you write anything and everything you desire, without shame, without purpose. Let it suck and let it be brilliant, too. Write way too much and then write too little. Feel hopeful and feel ashamed and understand that this is how you will live forever. Your brain is melodramatic. It wa
... See moreLet’s say your character is sitting with his grown son beneath a cypress tree on a lion-colored hillside, chewing over in the sourest possible voice the few ecstatic moments of his life, and all you are going to do this morning is to squint along with him, and listen, and possibly find out what some of those moments might have been. After a minute,
... See moreAnne Lamott • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Tomorrow, pour cold critical water upon the simmering coals. Time enough to think and cut and rewrite tomorrow. But today—explode—fly apart—disintegrate!
Ray Bradbury • Zen in the Art of Writing
Something about the act of committing that object to paper was completely engrossing—the way it necessitated seeing only what was there and shutting out the distraction of my ideas about chairs or vases and what they were supposed to look like.