Discover, flaunt, and celebrate your authentic assets. — Dame Edith Sitwell “Her early work was often experimental, creating melody, using striking conceits, new rhythms, and confusing private allusions. Her efforts at change were resisted, but, as the New Statesman observed, ‘losing every battle, she won the campaign,’ and emerged the high priestess of twentieth-century poetry.” Poetry Foundation Dame Edith Sitwell
Category: Quotes
You just have to fight your way through. — Ira Glass
Ira Glass is host and producer of This American Life. David Shiyang Liu recorded Ira talking about storytelling. In Part One of the interview, you can watch Ira in the recording studio. You can also read about parts two, three and four in the caption. In Part Three Ira talks about the creative process. Watch Ira’s words unfold in a whimsical way. Ira Glass, the art of storytelling (typed with minor modifications): Nobody tells people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me, is that all of us who do creative work . . . we get into it, and we get into it because we have good taste, but it’s like there’s a gap. For the first couple of years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good; it’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be…
The temptation is to lie. . .
If we become honest in our talking and dealing with people, if we go deep and tell the genuine truth, will that carry over to our writing? And will we then go deep and become authentic in our writing? The temptation is to not go where it hurts. The temptation is to lie in order to resist the painful truth. I recently read Pack Up the Moon by Rachael Herron and The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. Both of these authors went deep in their writing and the resulting books are genuine, authentic and fabulous reads. . . where the characters and their problems deeply touched me. Rachael and Meg did not resist writing about painful truths. How about you? Can you recommend books that deeply touched you? What other authors go deep in their writing? I can think of Jodi Piccoult. Your turn. Photo by Kent Sorensen
Run your own race.
In an interview in the February 2014 issue of The Writer magazine, interviewer Alicia Anstead asked Monica Wood, “One of the nuns who taught you as a child said explorers should have courage, goals, imagination and, finally, humility. Which of these is most important for a writer, and why?” Monica answered: “I have a sign in my studio: Run your own race. Some other writer will always write lovelier books, reach more readers, make more money, win more awards. the writing trade – which is full, full, full of rejections and failure – is a lifelong lesson in humility, and we are wise to take that lesson into the other arenas of our life. Writing is engaging, gratifying and often profoundly discouraging and difficult. But not as discouraging and difficult as coal mining or warfare.” Monica Wood is the author of When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico,…
Find the truth of the scene — Actor Will Forte
In an interview with The Costco Connection, Will Forte – an eight-year vet of Saturday Night Live – talks about his experience working with Bruce Dern in the movie “Nebraska.” When asked what he learned from Bruce Dern, Will answered, “Bruce would always give me this advice: ‘Be in the moment. Just find the truth of the scene.’ I’m not a trained actor, so that just seemed like drama school hogwash, but the further we got into the movie, it really made a lot of sense to me, and then I started thinking, maybe that’s what I’m supposed to do in comedy too. The truths might be very different, the levels of reality might be different, but you have to commit 100 percent either way.” Note from Marlene: I think this is true with writing also. When “the truth of the scene” is conveyed, writing is strong and readers feel…
That’s what life is. — Ellen DeGeneres
I love stories that are inspirational yet have a lot of heartache, because I think that’s what life is. Life is filled with struggles and yet there’s always beauty, and that’s what I get from films. — Ellen DeGeneres, Parade Magazine, March 2, 2014 Photo by Jeff Cullen
Hard work got me here and only . . .
Hard work got me here and only hard work will keep me here. — Brandon Stanton, photographer and author of Humans of New York. Brandon is the amazing young man who founded the Humans of New York Project. Q & A with Brandon and Lee Shearer: Why did you start Humans of New York? The idea for HONY came very organically from a love of photography. It wasn’t really modeled on anything. It emerged from many small evolutions rather than coming from a fully formed idea. For my first year or so of doing HONY full time, there weren’t even captions or interviews. It was just a photography blog. What kept you going in the first months of HONY? Obsession, really. I just truly loved doing it, and I thought the work was unique and important. Even early on, I had a lot of confidence that if I kept working,…
You can build a career as an author. — David Sedaris
You can build a career as an author by playing to your strengths, following your true passion, going at your own pace and never shying away from your unique voice. — David Sedaris Writers Digest Magazine, October 2013
Dispute the thoughts that don’t serve you.
Listen closely to yourself and dispute the thoughts that don’t serve you – even if those are true. For example, you might think, “Writing a novel is hard. Selling a novel is hard.” Yes, both thoughts are true, but they don’t serve you. The only thought that serves you is, “I’m off to write a novel.” — Eric Maisel, January 2014 issue of The Writer magazine.
How to go for the gold.
What percentage of being an Olympic champion would you attribute to hard work versus natural talent? Kristi Yamaguchi answers: “I think it’s drive over talent for sure. I was not the quickest learner. When I was 7, my mom said, ‘You need to work harder because everyone else is learning faster than you.’ Skating taught me to have a work ethic—in order to improve, you have to put the time in.” Quote from Parade magazine, January 19, 2014. Same with writing, right? You know the drill . . . butt in chair. Warm up with a freewrite, using a prompt. Then keep going. Just write.