I think if I had been writing fiction, where the work is entirely dependent on the writer's creativity and the potential directions the narrative might take are infinite, I might have frozen
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the challenges of creative writing, emphasizing the limitless possibilities that can lead to paralysis in decision-making.
Laura Hillenbrand highlights the complexities of writing fiction, where the writer's imagination is both a gift and a burden. The infinite potential for different narrative paths can lead to a sense of overwhelm, causing the writer to hesitate or freeze in the creative process. This observation acknowledges the unique struggle faced by authors as they navigate their creative choices in an open-ended medium.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a writing workshop to highlight the creative challenges writers face.
Every day after lunch when I was writing my first book, I'd nibble a square of fine chocolate and meditate on all that had gone into its creation: the sun and rain that spilled on the cocoa plant, the soil that nourished it, the hands that picked the beans, and so on. My taste of chocolate became a lesson on the interconnectedness of things, and the infinite blessings for which I am grateful.
I identified in a very deep way with the individuals I was writing about because the theme that runs through this story is of extraordinary hardship and the will to overcome it.
Without dignity, identity is erased.
It's easy to talk to a horse if you understand his language. Horses stay the same from the day they are born until the day they die. They are only changed by the way people treat them.
Most people, when they hear the disease name, it's all they know about it. It sounds so mild. When I first was sick, for the first 10 years or so, I was dismissed. I was ridiculed and told I was lazy. It was a joke.
The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when their tormentors suffer.
Good cinema is what we can believe, and bad cinema is what we can't believe.
As far as the filmmaking process is concerned, stars are essentially worthless - and absolutely essential.
You can't trust an artist that just makes good records.
...What is the use of beauty? i have lived my life surrounded by painters, and still I do not know the answer. But i suspect, some days, that beauty helps protect the spirit of mankind, swaddle it and succor it, so that we might survive. Beauty is no end in itself, but if it makes or lives less miserable so that we might be more kind-well, then, lets have beauty, painted on our porcelain, hanging on our walls, ringing through our stories.
So many stories, and to choose which ones to tell and how to tell them. The words, they will tap me on the shoulder and they will speak to me: 'Tell me! Tell me!' The stories choose me.
Ecstasy is not really part of the scene we can do on celluloid.
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