Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
I have spent a good many years since―too many, I think―being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the struggle and self-doubt that artists face regarding their creativity and the judgments they encounter.
In this quote, Stephen King shares his personal journey of grappling with shame and criticism as a writer. He acknowledges that almost all creators—whether writers, painters, dancers, or musicians—face disapproval from others, leading them to doubt their talents. King's reflection serves as a reminder that such negative perceptions are part of the creative process, and the key is to persist despite the discouragement.
In practice
Use this quote to inspire a writing group discussion about overcoming self-doubt.
Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
There’s no “correct path” to becoming a real artist. You might think you’ll gain legitimacy by going to university, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it’s all bullshit, and it’s all in your head. You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.
If you're any kind of artist, you make a miraculous journey, and you come back and make some statements in shapes and colors of where you were.
Jazz in itself is not struggling. That is, the music itself is not struggling... It's the attitude that's in trouble. My plays insist that we should not forget or toss away our history.
[A writer is] a priest of eternal imagination, transmuting the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of everliving life.
A good poem looks life straight in the face, unflinching, sincere, equal to revelation through loss or gain.
If you go to a big publishing house, editorial aside, it's completely white.
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