In my view, the novelist has no right to express his opinions on the things of this world. In creating, he must imitate God: do his job and then shut up.
Gustave FlaubertRead
It is a delicious thing to write, to be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating. Today, for instance, as man and woman, both lover and mistress, I rode in a forest on an autumn afternoon under the yellow leaves, and I was also the horses, the leaves, the wind, the words my people uttered, even the red sun that made them almost close their love-drowned eyes.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing allows one to transcend personal identity and explore vast imaginative landscapes.
This quote by Gustave Flaubert reflects the transformative power of writing. It suggests that through the act of creating, a writer can escape their own identity and inhabit a rich, diverse world of their own imagination. In this universe, they become part of everythingβthe characters, nature, and even the emotions represented in their words. Flaubert captures the beauty and complexity of this experience, highlighting how writing is not just an act of expression, but a journey into a vivid alternate reality.
Themes
WritingCreativityImaginationExpressionTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared in a writing workshop to inspire participants to dive into their creative minds.
More from Gustave Flaubert
All quotes βShe loved the sea for its storms alone, cared for vegetation only when it grew here and there among ruins. She had to extract a kind of personal advantage from things and she rejected as useless everything that promised no immediate gratification β for her temperament was more sentimental than artistic, and what she was looking for was emotions, not scenery.
Gustave FlaubertRead
In the dark room a cloud of yellow dust flew from beneath the tool like a scatter of sparks from under the hooves of a galloping horse. The twin wheels turned and hummed. Binet was smiling, his chin down, his nostrils distended. He seemed lost in the kind of happiness which, as a rule, accompanies only those mediocre occupations that tickle the intelligence with easy difficulties, and satisfy it with a sense of achievement beyond which there is nothing left for dreams to feed on.
Gustave FlaubertRead
Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.
Gustave FlaubertRead
Whatever the thing you wish to say, there is but one word to express it, but one verb to give it movement, but one adjective to qualify it; you must seek until you find this noun, this verb, this adjective.
Gustave FlaubertRead
I'm absolutely removed from the world at such times...The hours go by without my knowing it. Sitting there I'm wandering in countries I can see every detail of - I'm playing a role in the story I'm reading. I actually feel I'm the characters - I live and breath with them.
Gustave FlaubertRead
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