I learned not to care ... and to write for an imaginary reader whose tastes were similar to my own.
Terry SouthernRead
The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.
Interpretation
Writing should aim to amaze and inspire rather than just provoke.
Terry Southern emphasizes that true writing transcends mere shock value; it should instead evoke a sense of wonder and astonishment. This captures the essence of creativity, urging writers to strive for deeper emotional impacts that resonate with readers and elevate their experiences.
In practice
A writer could use this quote to inspire students in a creative writing workshop.
I learned not to care ... and to write for an imaginary reader whose tastes were similar to my own.
I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose β there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?
I detest my past, and anyone else's. I detest resignation, patience, professional heroism and obligatory beautiful feelings. I also detest the decorative arts, folklore, advertising, voices making announcements, aerodynamism, boy scouts, the smell of moth balls, events of the moment, and drunken people.
Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo! By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow, By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us! Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!
There is no separate art of life. If you know how to allow poetry, if you know how to allow dance, if you know how to allow love - if you know how to ALLOW, then you know the art of life. In the allowing, in the let-go, in the surrender, is the art of life. How not to be and to let God be - that is the only art of life.
In a poem the excitement has to maintain itself. I am governed by the pull of the sentence as the pull of a fabric is governed by gravity.
I like ornament at the right time, but I don't want a poem to be made out of decoration ... When I read the poems that matter to me, it stuns me how much the presence of the heart-in all its forms-is endlessly available there. To experience ourselves in an important way just knocks me out. It puzzles me why people have given that up for cleverness. Some of them are ingenious, more ingenious than I am, but so many of them aren't any good at being alive.
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