All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.
Interpretation
Good writing often requires effort and depth, akin to the challenge of swimming underwater.
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses this metaphor to convey that great writing involves deep immersion in thoughts and emotions, often requiring the writer to hold back simpler, surface-level expressions. Just as swimming underwater is a strenuous task that demands focus and stamina, so too does writing well require dedication, skill, and the ability to explore complex themes beneath the surface.
In practice
In a writing workshop, teachers may use this quote to inspire students to dig deeper in their narratives.
Don't be so anxious about it,' she laughed. 'I'm not used to being loved. I wouldn't know what to do; I never got the trick of it.' She looked down at him, shy and fatigued. 'So here we are. I told you years ago that I had the makings of Cinderella.' He took her hand; she drew it back instinctively and then replaced it in his. 'Beg your pardon. Not even used to being touched. But I'm not afraid of you, if you stay quiet and don't move suddenly.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
It was about then [1920] that I wrote a line which certain people will not let me forget: "She was a faded but still lovely woman of twenty-seven."
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
But you can love more than just one person, can't you?
A sudden gust of rain blew over them and then another - as if small liquid clouds were bouncing along the land. Lightning entered the sea far off and the air blew full of crackling thunder. The table cloths blew around the pillars. They blew and blew and blew. The flags twisted around the red chairs like live things, the banners were ragged, the corners of the table tore off through the burbling billowing ends of the cloths.
Writing, acting, music, comedy. A deep love of literature and books. Thank God for all the artists who've helped me.
he was for long my only audience... Only from him did I ever get the idea that my βstuffβ could be more than a private hobby. But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more I should never have brought The L. of the R. to a conclusion.
With the first novel, I was concerned I would be pigeon-holed as an Asian-American writer, and the book would be labeled for Asian-Americans only.
I've written only two novels, but they're both long ones, and they each took a decade to write.
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun
There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.