There is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident.
Interpretation
Writing can bring unexpected joy through spontaneous creativity and discoveries.
H. L. Mencken's quote highlights the intrinsic pleasure and unexpected delights that come with the act of writing. It celebrates the idea that in the process of creating, writers often stumble upon new insights or ideas that bring satisfaction and inspiration, turning what may start as mere accidents into meaningful discoveries.
In practice
This quote can be used in a writing workshop to inspire participants to embrace unexpected moments while writing.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Say it, no ideas but in things - nothing but the blank faces of the houses and cylindrical trees bent, forked by preconception and accident - split, furrowed, creased, mottled, stained - secret - into the body of the light!
I am sure that as a woman I can do a very good skyscraper.
To express what is the most moral, healthful and beautiful in art this is the mission of the dancer, and to this I dedicate my life.
It wasn't long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was more than a single film could hold. As the saga of the Skywalkers and Jedi Knights unfolded, I began to see it as a tale that could take at least nine films to tell - three trilogies - and I realized, in making my way through the back story and after story, that I was really setting out to make the middle story.
You see, dancers are quite mature people because they start performing so early. They become professionals when they start to take everyday classes.
To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life.
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