Everyone is influenced by everybody but you bring it down home the way you feel it.
Thelonious MonkRead
Bad books on writing tell you to "WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW", a solemn and totally false adage that is the reason there exist so many mediocre novels about English professors contemplating adultery.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes the advice to only write about familiar subjects, suggesting it limits creativity and leads to uninspired work.
Joe Haldeman's quote challenges the conventional wisdom of writing only about what one knows. He argues that this adage stifles creativity and results in subpar literature, as it confines writers to their own experiences rather than encouraging them to explore broader themes and ideas that can enrich their storytelling.
In practice
In a writing workshop, to encourage participants to break out of their comfort zones.
Everyone is influenced by everybody but you bring it down home the way you feel it.
If you're not perfectly conscious of yourself, that self can be tyrannical; in relationship to others, anyone can become a tyrant. That's why no one can be a Superman. You have to go beyond yourself with a 'third eye' - self-awareness - because the one thing you cannot flee is yourself.
Niggas hate what they can't understand, fear what they can't conquer
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything.
... success or failure, the truth of a life really has little to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.
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