When I lock myself up to write, I cannot allow myself to think about the censor or the reviewer or anyone but my characters and their story!
Judy BlumeRead
My mother told me once that she had her talk with God whenever she started a new sweater: 'Please don't take me in the middle of the sweater.' And as soon as she finished knitting a sweater, and it was blocked and put together, she already had the wool to start the next sweater so that nothing bad would happen.
Interpretation
This quote reflects a mother's humorous yet serious approach to life and creativity, intertwining her love for knitting with her faith and desire for longevity.
In this quote, Judy Blume shares a touching anecdote about her mother's relationship with God, using the metaphor of knitting sweaters. It illustrates how her mother found solace and a sense of control in the act of creation, while also humorously expressing a wish to avoid untimely death until her projects were complete. It highlights the intersection of creativity, faith, and the human experience of seeking security in uncertainty.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of creativity and mindfulness.
When I lock myself up to write, I cannot allow myself to think about the censor or the reviewer or anyone but my characters and their story!
What I remember when I started to write was how I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to get to my characters.
What can happen if a young reader picks up a book he/she isn't yet ready for? Questions, maybe. Usually, that child puts down the book and says, 'Boring.' Or, 'I'm not ready for this.' Kids are really good at knowing what they can handle.
Concentrate on how good if feels to be alive. No matter what. Just to see the color of the sky, just to smell the air, and feel the wind in your face
I wrote 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' right out of my own experiences and my own feelings when I was in sixth grade.
Nobody ever asks me why my characters don't text each other. Besides, as soon as you put something 'electronic' in a book, it's already out of date by the time it's published: everything will have changed. Human emotion, on the other hand, will never change.
If you've never wept and want to, have a child.
You have to really respect what your kids are doing with their kids and how they're raising them. You can't push your way into areas where you shouldn't be saying anything. You have to always remember they're not your own kids. Play with them, love them, spoil them to death - then hand them back.
There's no handbook for parenting. So you walk a very fine line as a parent because you are civilizing these raw things. They will tip the coffee over and finger-paint on the table. At some point, you have to say, 'We're gonna have to clean that up because you don't paint with coffee on a table.'
Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
The human father has to be confronted and recognized as human, as man who created a child and then, by his absence, left the child fatherless and then Godless.
What makes Mom the best is that she never put any expectations too high on the kids. She just wanted us to be doing the things that made us happy, as long as we were working hard, but we never had to live up to something.
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