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.
If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it by one's conversation.
An artist's sphere of influence is the world.
When you write a song, a song has longevity
An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house.
Not what the mind sees, but what the mind imagines the eye must see.
No nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling, even if it be only the faintest shadow - and if it does not do so it is bad art and false morals.
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