Southerners love a good tale. They are born reciters, great memory retainers, diary keepers, letter exchangers . . . great talkers.
Eudora WeltyRead
To write honestly and with all our powers is the least we can do, and the most.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing with honesty is both a fundamental responsibility and a profound endeavor.
Eudora Welty's quote emphasizes the importance of sincere and dedicated expression in writing. It suggests that when we write honestly, we fulfill our duty as writers while simultaneously engaging in the highest form of creative expression, highlighting the dual nature of writing as both a basic obligation and a profound art.
Themes
WritingHonestyExpressionCreativityDedication
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on creative writing, a speaker might use this quote to encourage participants to dig deeper into their authentic voices.
More from Eudora Welty
All quotes βWriting a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer's own life.
Eudora WeltyRead
A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.
Eudora WeltyRead
For the source of the short story is usually lyrical. And all writers speak from, and speak to, emotions eternally the same in all of us: love, pity, terror do not show favorites or leave any of us out.
Eudora WeltyRead
The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.
Eudora WeltyRead
The first act of insight is throw away the labels. In fiction, while we do not necessarily write about ourselves, we write out of ourselves, using ourselves; what we learn from, what we are sensitive to, what we feel strongly about--these become our characters and go to make our plots. Characters in fiction are conceived from within, and they have, accordingly, their own interior life; they are individuals every time.
Eudora WeltyRead
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There is no poetry where there are no mistakes.
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That's what's nice about directing a film and having it done: There's nothing more I can do about it. It's done. That's it. All I can do is let it go and hope that people are kind to it.
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Onstage, you just have to tell the absolute truth about the character you are playing. You hope you communicate it, and you hope it comes back like a tennis ball. If you're listening to the sound of your own voice, nobody else is. The audience knows, and they freeze on you.
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The artist is a collector of things imaginary or real. He accumulates things with the same enthusiasm that a little boy stuffs his pockets. The scrap heap and the museum are embraced with equal curiosity. He takes snapshots, makes notes and records impressions on tablecloths or newspapers, on backs of envelopes or matchbooks. Why one thing and not another is part of the mystery, but he is omnivorous.
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You have to write the story that's at the front of your head. There is no point in trying to write for the market; it won't ring true.
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At the end of the day, 'Shuffle Along' is about people coming together and making something extraordinary - and history not necessarily being kind to them. It's about the love of necessarily being kind to them. It's about the love of doing, regardless of the consequences.
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