There are dozens of young poets and fictioneers most of them a little insane in the tradition of James Joyce, who, however insane they may be, have refused to be genteel and traditional and dull.
Interpretation
The quote celebrates the unconventional creativity of young poets and writers who challenge traditional norms.
Sinclair Lewis highlights the vibrant spirit of young poets and fiction writers who, despite their eccentricities, reject the boundaries of genteel and conventional storytelling. He admires their courage to embrace insanity and originality, emphasizing that true artistry often thrives outside the confines of societal expectations, as exemplified by the legacy of writers like James Joyce.
In practice
This quote could be used at a writing workshop to encourage participants to embrace their unique style.
Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good-- kept him in touch with Higher Things.
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes-it is just work.
She did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them.
Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it's still just work.
It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
A masterpiece of fiction is an original world and as such is not likely to fit the world of the reader.
Unfortunately, there aren't enough interesting acting roles in New Zealand to sustain a career.
I always had a lot of fun in America, with much more freedom than if I had tried to cook in France. I wouldn't have the same motivation or inspiration, and I wouldn't have cooked for the same kind of people in France, so it wouldn't have given me this edge I had in America.
A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
The truest writers are those who see language not as a linguistic process but as a living element.
So they were turning, after all - those cameras. Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her. Norma: You see, this is my life. It always will be! (In a whisper) There's nothing else - just us - and the cameras - and those wonderful people out there in the dark. All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up.
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