The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning
Anne TylerRead
I don't know what takes more courage: surviving a lifelong endurance test because you once made a promise or breaking free, disrupting all your world.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the courage required to either uphold a lifelong commitment or to choose personal freedom over obligation.
In this quote, Anne Tyler explores the conflicting nature of courage in the context of promises and personal freedom. It suggests that sustaining a commitment, despite the challenges it brings, requires a kind of bravery, while simultaneously, the act of breaking free from such commitments can also be incredibly courageous. This duality highlights the complexity of human relationships and the decisions we must make in our lives.
In practice
During a motivational speech about facing life's challenges.
The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning
I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a thought to influences or method or any other writerly concerns
I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.
It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.
And she thought what a clean, simple life she would have led if it weren't for love.
There is no true life. Your true life is the one you end up with, whatever it may be. You just do the best you can with what you've got.
In other words, let's give our young women the right weapons to fight with as they charge naked into battle, instead of ordering them to get back in the house and put some goddamn clothes on.
As long as a man had the courage to reject what society told him to do, he could live life on his own terms. To what end? To be free. But free to what end? To read books, to write books, to think.
The ability and inclination to use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life. The greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper and more common than physical bravery.
How I conned the Grand Wizard, David Duke, and his coterie of followers... It has defined me in ways I never could have imagined.
My dear Excellency! I have not gone to war to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose.
For us, warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who can not provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity.
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