My mother had no idea that her daughter would turn out to be a writer, but she would not let me go through a day of my childhood without music.
As authors evolve and try to trace the precedents that have shaped their work, it sometimes becomes a matter of identifying the shadowy figure in the back row of the mental photograph, or of grabbing at the tail of a memory that's just slipping out the window into thin air.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote speaks to the challenges authors face in recognizing influences on their work and how fleeting memories can affect their creative process.
Virginia Euwer Wolff highlights the complex journey of authors as they seek to understand and articulate the inspirations and influences that shape their narratives. This metaphorical 'shadowy figure' symbolizes the often elusive influences in an author's psyche, suggesting that while these inspirations may be present, they are difficult to grasp and interpret as they can slip away from conscious memory, much like a fleeting thought or recollection.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on creative writing, this quote could be used to illustrate the importance of understanding one's influences.
More from Virginia Euwer Wolff
All quotes →Similar quotes
What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,’.... And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.
My art flatters nobody by imitation; it courts nobody by smoothness, tickles nobody by petiteness... there is no finish in nature.
The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?
By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.
The only time I have a good hunch the audience is going to be there is when I make the sequel to 'Jurassic Park' or I make another Indiana Jones movie. I know I've got a good shot at getting an audience on opening night. Everything else that is striking out into new territory is a crap shoot.
What’s so incredibly amusing with photography is that while seemingly an art of the surface, it catches things I haven’t even noticed. And it pains me not to have seen things in all their depth.