A home is not a museum. It doesn't have to be furnished with Picasso paintings, or Sheraton suites, or Oriental rugs, or Chinese pottery. But it does have to be furnished with things that mean something to you.
James M. CainRead
If your writing doesn`t keep you up at night, it won`t keep anyone else up either".
Interpretation
Writing should be compelling enough to engage both the writer and the reader.
This quote by James M. Cain emphasizes the idea that if a writer is not passionate and deeply invested in their own work, their writing will not resonate with others. It suggests that true engagement in writing comes from a place of personal dedication and intensity, and only then can the work evoke a similar response in its audience.
In practice
In a writing workshop to encourage fellow authors to explore deeper themes.
A home is not a museum. It doesn't have to be furnished with Picasso paintings, or Sheraton suites, or Oriental rugs, or Chinese pottery. But it does have to be furnished with things that mean something to you.
Good teachers never say anything. What they do is create the conditions under which learning takes place.
My early childhood prepared me to be a social psychologist. I grew up in a South Bronx ghetto in a very poor family. From Sicilian origin, I was the first person in my family to complete high school, let alone go to college.
If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday.
In my own research when I'm working with equations, I never feel like I really understand what I'm doing if I'm solely relying on the mathematics for my understanding. I need to have a visual picture in my mind. I'm constantly translating from the math to some intuitive mind's-eye picture.
Of course humans like to explore, and we should. There's nothing wrong with that. But it's more than that. It's essential for your children and your children's children.
And that's why books are never going to die. It's impossible. It's the only time we really go into the mind of a stranger, and we find our common humanity doing this. So the book doesn't only belong to the writer, it belongs to the reader as well, and then together you make it what it is.
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