QuoteProject
Writing has certainly helped me explore about 20,000 versions of my authentic self. I suppose that's what most writers discover if they write long enough: there are a lot of selves roaming around in there.
Gillian Flynn
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Writing allows individuals to discover different aspects of their true selves.

In her quote, Gillian Flynn emphasizes the transformative power of writing in uncovering various identities and facets of the self. She suggests that through the act of writing over time, authors often unveil multiple layers of their authentic selves, leading to deeper self-understanding and exploration.

Themes

WritingAuthenticitySelf-DiscoveryIdentityExploration

In practice

Example use cases

In a writing workshop, I shared the quote to encourage participants to explore their inner selves.

More from Gillian Flynn

It’s a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.
Gillian FlynnRead
Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom. I have known so many sick women all my life. Women with chronic pain, with ever-gestating diseases. Women with conditions. Men, sure, they have bone snaps, they have backaches, they have a surgery or two, yank out a tonsil, insert a shiny plastic hip. Women get consumed.
Gillian FlynnRead
I was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs.
Gillian FlynnRead
One of my biggest peeves is when the writer hasn't given you enough information to figure everything out. You should be able to go back to the beginning of 'Gone Girl,' after you've already read it and you know everything, and say, 'Check - check - yes, she gave us that information.'
Gillian FlynnRead
I often don't say things out loud, even when I should. I contain and compartmentalize to a disturbing degree: In my belly-basement are hundreds of bottles of rage, despair, fear, but you'd never guess from looking at me.
Gillian FlynnRead
Because I'm a woman writing about women who do bad things, that's somehow very 'other.' When men write that, it's called a novel. It's just a book.
Gillian FlynnRead

Similar quotes

The author must keep his mouth shut when his work starts to speak.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.
Oscar WildeRead
Music is the reaching out towards the utmost realities by means of ordered sound.
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRead
People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it.
Harlan EllisonRead
Poetry seems to be the only weapon able to beat language, using language's own means.
Joseph BrodskyRead
I would like, if I can, to broaden the possibilities of the musical theater. I think there's a better 'Oklahoma!' someplace, a better 'West Side Story.' And I'd like to be mixed up in it.
Richard RodgersRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.