Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger.
E. M. ForsterRead
Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent.
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
All quotes →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
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The war is dreadful. It is the business of the artist to follow it home to the heart of the individual fighters - not to talk in armies and nations and numbers - but to track it home.
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All writing, all art, is an act of faith. If one tries to contribute to human understanding, how can that be called decadent? It's like saying a declaration of love is an act of decadence. Any work of art, provide it springs from a sincere motivation to further understanding between people, is an act of faith and therefore is an act of love.
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I think pictures and words have the power to make us rich or poor.
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Acting is not about anything romantic, not even fantasy, although you do create fantasy.
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Conceptually, I am open to mistakes - errors, actually. I do play lots of wrong notes while I am making some music, and a mistake or a wrong note is like a gift for me: 'Oh, wow, an unknown sound or an unknown harmony. I didn't know about this.'
Ryuichi SakamotoRead