Sometimes it's best to speak from ignorance: that way, you can see the wood without being distracted by the trees.
Howard JacobsonRead
In my experience, every book you write changes the conditions in which you write the next.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing influences future writing experiences and conditions.
This quote by Howard Jacobson suggests that each book a writer creates has a profound impact on their subsequent writing processes and environments. It emphasizes the idea that the act of writing is a dynamic journey, where past experiences and creations shape the context and challenges for future projects, leading to growth and evolution as a writer.
Themes
WritingBooksExperienceProcessCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, a participant could use this quote to illustrate how their previous projects have influenced their current work.
More from Howard Jacobson
All quotes →I think one of the main reasons I write is to do better than ranting. The ranting is the opinion, and the writing is not the opinion. I always say that people's opinions are the worst things about them. The words demand a dignity.
Howard JacobsonRead
How do you explain to somebody who doesn't understand that you don't build a library to read. A library is a resource. Something you go to, for reference, as and when. But also something you simply look at, because it gives you succour, answers to some idea of who you are or, more to the point, who you would like to be, who you will be once you own every book you need to own.
Howard JacobsonRead
It is no judgement of a thing outside yourself to say it makes you ill. The wise reader knows that every pronouncement is, to some degree, an act of self-exposure; the book you find too challenging might only show how ill-equipped you are to face its challenge.
Howard JacobsonRead
For a lot of readers these days, a book is something you have to agree or disagree with. But you can't agree with a novel. For my generation, it was assumed that a book is a dramatic thing, that the eye of the book is not telling you what to think.
Howard JacobsonRead
It isn't only in the name of free speech that the views of an itchy polemicist should be tolerated - and I say itchy polemicist promoting thought, not itchy ideologue promoting violence - but because provocation is indispensable to the workings of a sound, creative culture.
Howard JacobsonRead
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You can’t look too far ahead. Do that and you’ll lose sight of what you’re doing and stumble. I’m not saying you should focus solely on the details right in front of you, mind you. You’ve got to look ahead a bit or else you’ll bump into something. You’ve got to conform to the proper order and at the same time keep an eye out for what’s ahead. That’s critical, no matter what you’re doing.
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I have found it very important in my own life to try to let go of my wishes and instead to live in hope. I am finding that when I choose to let go of my sometimes petty and superficial wishes and trust that my life is precious and meaningful in the eyes of God something really new, something beyond my own expectations begins to happen for me. (Finding My Way Home)
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The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The black goddess within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.
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