Trusting someone was like holding a little water in your cupped hands - it was so easy to spill the water, and you could never get it back.
Ken FollettRead
Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I'm looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.
Interpretation
Success often follows perseverance and understanding audience needs.
In this quote, Ken Follett highlights the challenges he faced in his writing journey, emphasizing that persistent effort is crucial for achieving success. By focusing on what readers find engaging rather than imposing his messages, he underscores the importance of adaptability and audience connection in creative pursuits.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming hurdles in a career.
Trusting someone was like holding a little water in your cupped hands - it was so easy to spill the water, and you could never get it back.
You see, all that I ever held dear has been taken from me," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And when you've lost everything-" Her facade began to crumble, and her voice broke, but she made herself carry on. "When you've lost everything, you've got nothing to lose.
Without books I would not have become a vivacious reader, and if you are not a reader you are not a writer.
I want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.
When I'm writing a woman character, I don't think, 'What would a woman do?' I just think, 'What would this character do in this situation?'
Well, for people who want to write best sellers, the best advice I can give is to say that the novel has to engage the reader emotionally.
Successful people don't fear failure, but understand that it's necessary to learn and grow from.
It's insane to me to ask anybody to be what they're not. Know what you know the best, love the most. That's always going to be the answer to the thing that you have the best shot at winning at.
We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.
When I won in 2003, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would win Wimbledon and have my kids seeing me lift the trophy, so this is pretty surreal. And yeah, I was almost shocked in the moment that it all came together so nicely.
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
I had a very ordinary background in Sheffield; I went to a secondary modern, but I saw something on TV in 1968 that inspired me to join an athletics club, and 12 years later, with great coaching and the support of people who loved me a lot, I ended up at an Olympic Games.
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