I am transcribing a book that I have, in a sense, not yet written, and in another sense, have always written, and in another sense, am currently writing, and in another sense, am always writing, and in another sense, will never write.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the complex relationship between creation, existence, and time in writing.
Charles Yu's quote delves into the intricacies of the writing process, suggesting that the act of writing is not a linear endeavor. Instead, it represents a continuous and evolving journey where past, present, and future intertwine, highlighting the perpetual state of creation and the inherent struggle of articulation that every writer experiences.
In practice
In a creative writing workshop, one might share this quote to encourage participants to reflect on their writing journeys.
I had forgotten: this is what it feels like to live in time. The lurching forward, the sensation of falling of a cliff into darkness, and then landing abruptly, surprised, confused, and then starting the whole process again in the next moment, doing that over and over again, falling into each instant of time and then climbing back up only to repeat the process.
All of her heart, a meaningless phrase, but correct and precise, too. She used her heart to love him, not her head, and not her words and not her thoughts or ideas or feelings or any other vehicle or object or device people use to deliver love or love-like things.
Enjoy the elastic present, which can accommodate as little or as much as you want to put in there. Stretch it out, live inside of it.
Maybe we spend most of our decades being someone else, avoiding ourselves, maybe a man is only himself, his true self, for a few days in his entire life.
You want to tell a story? Grow a heart. Grow two. Now, with the second heart, smash the first one into bits.
Look at you in war...There has never been a just one, never an honorable one, on the part of the instigator of the war.
If I could reach from pole to pole_x000D_ or grasp the ocean with a span,_x000D_ I would be measured by the soul_x000D_ The mind's the standard of the Man.
How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!
It's a curse - this not wanting to look on naked realities. Until the war, life was never more real to me than a shadow show on a curtain. And I preferred it so. I do not like the outlines of things to be too sharp. I like them gently blurred, a little hazy.
How can we find spiritual meaning in a scientific worldview? Spirituality is a way of being in the world, a sense of one’s place in the cosmos, a relationship to that which extends beyond oneself. . . . Does scientific explanation of the world diminish its spiritual beauty? I think not. Science and spirituality are complementary, not conflicting; additive, not detractive. Anything that generates a sense of awe may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades. (158-159)
This is a world where everybody’s gotta do something. Ya know, somebody laid down this rule that everybody’s gotta do something, they gotta be something. You know, a dentist, a glider pilot, a narc, a janitor, a preacher, all that . . . Sometimes I just get tired of thinking of all the things that I don’t wanna do. All the things that I don’t wanna be. Places I don’t wanna go, like India, like getting my teeth cleaned. Save the whale, all that, I don’t understand that . . .
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