Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
Authorship is not a trade, it is an inspiration; authorship does not keep an office, its habitation is all out under the sky, and everywhere the winds are blowing and the sun is shining and the creatures of God are free.
Interpretation
Authorship is a creative and inspiring endeavor rather than a mere profession bound by rules and limitations.
In this quote, Mark Twain emphasizes that being an author is not just about the act of writing in a structured environment; it is a form of inspiration that thrives in the natural world. He suggests that true creativity is organic and influenced by the beauty of life around us, indicating that a writer's spirit is free and always seeks inspiration from the universe.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of creativity in education.
Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
The easy part of being an artist is figuring out the message that everyone else is ready to hear. The hard part is waiting for the proper lull to make the announcement.
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
I wanted to be a singer, of course, but there was something about the songwriting, then and now, that is the most important thing. It's how I express myself, how I express how I see things. When I see people struggling with emotions and feelings and don't know how to put it down, I'm able to do that. It's really like a therapy, and it's like a buddy and a friend. It's a way out of a lot of things.
Do you know that every great thing in the history of art and every beautiful thing in life is actually what you call nasty or has been caused by feelings that you would call nasty? By passion, by love, by hatred, by truth. Do you know that?
Jazz is a sideways glance at music. It's like being an architect, knowing the basis of design but understanding that the facade can be whatever you dream.
An artisan without memories, whose only dream was to die of fatigue in the oblivion and misery of his little gold fishes.
Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.
It's wonderful to play a villain who gets a laugh or to stop a comedy dead in its tracks with a touching moment. It's kind of like a symphony that has very different movements.
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