Don't ever write just for a trend or fad, because it's a moving target, and by the time you get your work out there, the trend or fad is gone. Dig deep; don't be afraid to write fiercely. Expose your heart.
Jane YolenRead
I don't care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The importance of storytelling transcends reality, focusing on the narrative's relevance over its truth.
Jane Yolen emphasizes that storytelling is a vital art that prioritizes the message and emotional truth of the narrative over its factual accuracy. In her view, the stories we tell should resonate with human experience and carry the weight of what truly needs to be expressed, regardless of their basis in reality.
Themes
StorytellingNarrativeArtTruthCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop to encourage participants to embrace their unique stories, referencing this quote could inspire confidence in their storytelling.
More from Jane Yolen
All quotes →What makes a good book? Scholars and critics have been debating that question for decades. I like books that touch my head and my heart at the same time.
Jane YolenRead
Just write. If you have to make a choice, if you say, 'Oh well, I'm going to put the writing away until my children are grown,' then you don't really want to be a writer. If you want to be a writer, you do your writing... If you don't do it, you probably don't want to be a writer, you just want to have written and be famous—which is very different.
Jane YolenRead
I believe that culture begins in the cradle . . .To do without tales and stories and books is to lose humanity's past, is to have no star map for our future.
Jane YolenRead
Childrens books change lives. Stories pour into the hearts of children and help make them what they become.
Jane YolenRead
Folklore is the perfect second skin. From under its hide, we can see all the shimmering, shadowy uncertainties of the world.
Jane YolenRead
Similar quotes
Bottom line, I have to follow what my soul says, or my spirit. And my spirit said that poetry and the arts should be without borders, should be without political borders.
Joy HarjoRead
I can't say what people use the experience of listening to songs for, but I would never tell somebody what it is supposed to mean. That defeats the purpose of making it. Hopefully, whoever connects with it connects with it in their own way, and it can mean whatever it is supposed to mean to them.
Mark LaneganRead
People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it's quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.
Markus ZusakRead
If poetry does not come as naturally as leaves to a tree,_x000D_ _x000D_ then it better not come at all.
John KeatsRead
Everything was a song. Every conversation, every personal hurt, every observance of people in stress, happiness and love... if you could feel it, I could feel it. And I could write a song about it.
Curtis MayfieldRead
Art is not communicative, art is not reflexive. Art, science, philosophy are neither contemplative, neither reflexive, nor communicative. They are creative, that's all.
Gilles DeleuzeRead