My books never go where I think they're going.
Interpretation
The author's writing journey often takes unexpected turns, revealing deeper insights than initially planned.
In this quote, Khaled Hosseini expresses the unpredictable nature of the creative process. When writing, he discovers that his thoughts and narratives evolve in ways he did not anticipate, leading to richer and more profound stories than he initially envisioned. This highlights the organic nature of storytelling, where characters and plot developments can take on lives of their own.
In practice
During a writing workshop, I used this quote to explain how unpredictable the writing process can be.
You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.
There was brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that even time could not break. - Amir
I don't outline at all; I don't find it useful, and I don't like the way it boxes me in. I like the element of surprise and spontaneity, of letting the story find its own way.
And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.
Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.
The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.
Read with care, George Orwell's diaries, from the years 1931 to 1949, can greatly enrich our understanding of how Orwell transmuted the raw material of everyday experience into some of his best-known novels and polemics.
There's no lack of writers writing novels in America, about America. Therefore, it seems to me it would be wasteful for me to add to that huge number of people writing here when there are so few people writing about somewhere else.
Writers are often the worst judges of what they have written.
My theory is that literature is essential to society in the way that dreams are essential to our lives. We can't live without dreaming - as we can't live without sleep. We are 'conscious' beings for only a limited period of time, then we sink back into sleep - the 'unconscious.' It is nourishing, in ways we can't fully understand.
Books and marriage go ill together.
I think the job of writing and literature is to encourage each one of us to believe that we're living in a story.
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