The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form.
Penelope LivelyRead
All I know for certain is that reading is of the most intense importance to me; if I were not able to read, to revisit old favorites and experiment with names new to me, I would be starved - probably too starved to go on writing myself.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading is essential for personal nourishment and creativity.
In this quote, Penelope Lively emphasizes the fundamental role that reading plays in her life. She expresses that the act of reading not only satisfies her intellectual curiosity but also fuels her passion for writing; without the ability to explore new books or revisit beloved ones, she feels she would be deprived of the inspiration necessary for her own creative pursuits.
Themes
ReadingImportanceWritingCreativityInspiration
In practice
Example use cases
During a reading workshop, I shared a quote highlighting the importance of literature in nurturing creativity.
More from Penelope Lively
All quotes →In old age, you realise that while you're divided from your youth by decades, you can close your eyes and summon it at will. As a writer it puts one at a distinct advantage.
Penelope LivelyRead
The present hardly exists, after all-it becomes the past even as it happens. A tricky medium, time - and central to the concerns of fiction.
Penelope LivelyRead
Giving presents is one of the most possessive things we do, did you realize that? It's the way we keep a hold on other people. Plant ourselves in their lives.
Penelope LivelyRead
The idea that memory is linear is nonsense. What we have in our heads is a collection of frames. As to time itself-can it be linear when all these snatches of other presents exist at once in your mind? A very elusive and tricky concept, time.
Penelope LivelyRead
Similar quotes
Reading has always been life unwrapped to me, a way of understanding the world and understanding myself through both the unknown and the everyday. If being a parent consists often of passing along chunks of ourselves to unwitting-often unwilling-recipients, then books are, for me, one of the simplest and most sure-fire ways of doing that.
Anna QuindlenRead
The tragedy is that society (your school, your boss, your government, your family) keeps drumming the genius part out. The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.
Seth GodinRead
Give me a child for the first 5 years of his life and he will be mine forever.
Vladimir LeninRead
Let grammar, punctuation, and spelling into your life! Even the most energetic and wonderful mess has to be turned into sentences.
Terry PratchettRead
I was read to as a small child, I read on my own as soon as I could, and I recall being more or less overwhelmed again and again - if not by what the books actually said, by what they suggested, what they helped me to imagine.
Marilynne RobinsonRead
Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out, and strike it, merely to show that you have one.
Philip Stanhope, 4Th Earl Of ChesterfieldRead