Every island to a child is a treasure island.
P. D. JamesRead
Don't just plan to write - write. It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.
Interpretation
Taking action is essential for developing skills and personal style.
P. D. James emphasizes the importance of taking action in the writing process instead of merely planning or dreaming about it. By actively writing, individuals not only create content but also discover and refine their unique voice and style as writers, making the act of writing an essential component of personal and professional growth.
In practice
In a writing workshop, a facilitator might say, 'Remember, as P. D. James said, don't just plan to write - write!'
Every island to a child is a treasure island.
If from infancy you treat children as gods, they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.
I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism.
What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other Βpeople. Nothing that happens to a writer β however happy, however tragic β is ever wasted.
It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
There is nothing like books - of all things sold incomparably the cheapest, of all pleasure the least palling, they take up little room, keep quiet when they are not wanted, and, when taken up, bring us face to face with the choicest men who ever lived, at their choicest moments.
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
I am suspicious of writers who go looking for issues to address. Writers are neither preachers nor journalists. Journalists know much more than most writers about what's going on in the world. And if you want to change things, you do journalism.
Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.
The young writer should learn to spot them: words that at first glance seem freighted with delicious meaning, but that soon burst in the air, leaving nothing but a memory of bright sound.
Semantics, or the study of meaning, remained undeveloped, while phonetics made rapid progress and even came to occupy the central place in the scientific study of language.
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