QuoteProject
Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent.
E. M. Forster
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Creative writers transcend the themes and issues they write about, showcasing their talent and perspective.

E. M. Forster’s quote emphasizes the inherent superiority of creative writers over the subjects they depict. It suggests that a writer’s skill, imagination, and unique expression elevate their work beyond the mere representation of causes, issues, or narratives, establishing them as true creators rather than just commentators on the world.

Themes

Creative WritingArtImaginationExpressionTalent

In practice

Example use cases

During a creative writing workshop, this quote can inspire participants to embrace their individuality as writers.

More from E. M. Forster

Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
E. M. ForsterRead
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
E. M. ForsterRead
Oxford is Oxford: not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates to love it rather than to love one another.
E. M. ForsterRead
The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance.
E. M. ForsterRead
One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
E. M. ForsterRead

Similar quotes

Night came walking through Egypt swishing her black dress.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
The essential elements of singing are voice, musicianship, and story. It is the rare artist that has all three in abundance.
Linda RonstadtRead
If you write fiction, you have to love your characters. It's like your family. You don't have to like them, but you have to love them.
Douglas CouplandRead
the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat
William FaulknerRead
But I think we are seeing a resurgence of the graphic ghost story like The Others, Devil's Backbone and The Sixth Sense. It is a return to more gothic atmospheric ghost storytelling.
Guillermo Del ToroRead
I have been carrying on a dialogue between the landscape and the female body (based on my own silhouette) I am overwhelmed by the feeling of having been cast from the womb (nature). Through my earth/body sculptures I become one with the earth I become an extension of nature and nature becomes an extension of my body
Ana MendietaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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