When we commit ourselves to writing for some part of each day we are happier, more enlightened, alive, light hearted and generous to everyone else. Even our health improves.
Brenda Ueland, quoted in Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper, by Sark, p. 50
We also write to know that we are not “the only ones” thinking and feeling what we do. We discover and interpret the world, and perhaps live life more richly and rarely — because of the writing.
I write and share stories to experience life more than once. In the writing and telling of my stories, others read, listen and respond to me and my words.
Most of all, I write because of the joy it creates. Writing creates connections and magic and certain kinds of permanent bliss. I can write myself in and out of moods and experiences, and create new places to live in my mind. It’s kind of like pole vaulting with a pen.
— Sark, Juicy Pens and Thirsty Paper, p. 27
Novelists are geniuses when it comes to looking at trees. We’re very good at staying still and seeing what comes next….
If staring ever becomes an Olympic event I’ll be bringing home the gold. While other people go to work, I stare out the window. I stare at my dog. I stare at blank pieces of paper and paragraphs and single sentences and a buzzing computer screen. Hours and hours of my day are spent with my eyes glazed over, thinking, waiting, trying to figure things out. The muse is a sweet idea, like the tooth fairy. The muse supposedly comes down like lighting and fills your fingers with the necessary voltage to type up something brilliant. But nobody ever made a living depending on a muse. The rest of us have to go out and find our inspiration, write and rewrite, stare and stare and stare until we know which way to turn.
— Ann Patchett, What Now? p. 43-45
One reason nearly half my books are for children is the glorious fact that the minds of children are still open to the living word; in the child, nightside and sunside are not yet separated; fantasy contains truths which cannot be stated in terms of proof…. The most grownup of us is not very grownup at all… the most mature of us is pretty immature… we still have a vast amount to learn.
— Madeleine L’Engle, The Irrational Season, quoted in Glimpses of Grace, compiled by Carole F. Chase
If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf.
— Lemony Snicket, Horseradish, p. 77
Whether you are looking for the next step in your pursuit of success or are just trying to be a better, more successful, wife, mother, or friend — it’s important to remember the people you come into contact with. It’s important to keep those relationships, and be a friend yourself. And that’s the way I see my readers. I may not change their lives with the books I write, but I hope I improve their weekend.
— Debbie Macomber, Knit Together, p. 101