We must beware the revenge of the starved senses, the embittered animal in its prison.
J. B. PriestleyRead
Much of writing might be described as mental pregnancy with successive difficult deliveries.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing is a complex process that requires mental effort and creativity, often involving challenges similar to pregnancy and childbirth.
This quote by J. B. Priestley compares the act of writing to the experience of pregnancy and childbirth. Just as pregnancy involves nurturing an idea until it reaches maturity, writing necessitates a similar gestation period for thoughts to develop into coherent expressions. Each piece of writing is like a difficult delivery, indicating the challenges authors face in bringing their ideas to fruition, highlighting the struggles and creative labor involved in the writing process.
Themes
WritingCreativityProcessChallengesIdeas
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, you might say, 'As J. B. Priestley noted, much of writing might be described as mental pregnancy with successive difficult deliveries, so be patient with your ideas.'
More from J. B. Priestley
All quotes βBut some of us are beginning to pull well away, in our irritation, from...the exquisite tasters, the vintage snobs, the three-star Michelin gourmets. There is, we feel, a decent area somewhere between boiled carrots and Beluga caviare, sour plonk and Chateau Lafitte, where we can take care of our gullets and bellies without worshipping them.
J. B. PriestleyRead
A novelist who writes nothing for 10 years finds his reputation rising. Because I keep on producing books they say there must be something wrong with this fellow.
J. B. PriestleyRead
There is romance, the genuine glinting stuff, in typewriters, and not merely in their development from clumsy giants into agile dwarfs, but in the history of their manufacture, which is filled with raids, battles, lonely pioneers, great gambles, hope, fear, despair, triumph. If some of our novels could be written by the typewriters instead of on them, how much better they would be.
J. B. PriestleyRead
We plan, we toil, we suffer - in the hope of what? A camel-load of idol's eyes? The title deeds of Radio City? The empire of Asia? A trip to the moon? No, no, no, no. Simply to wake just in time to smell coffee and bacon and eggs.
J. B. PriestleyRead
No matter how piercing and appalling his insights, the desolation_x000D_ creeping over his outer world, the lurid lights and shadows of his inner_x000D_ world, the writer must live with hope, work in faith
J. B. PriestleyRead
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You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.
William JamesRead
When we grew up and went to school_x000D_ There were certain teachers who would_x000D_ Hurt the children any way they could_x000D_ By pouring their derision_x000D_ Upon anything we did_x000D_ Exposing every weakness_x000D_ However carefully hidden by the kids.
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We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school-masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.
Baron De MontesquieuRead
Thank you to the children whose innocent words encouraged me.
Malala YousafzaiRead
Once a day, especially in the early years of life and study, call yourselves to an account what new ideas, what new proposition or truth you have gained, what further confirmation of known truths, and what advances you have made in any part of knowledge.
Isaac WattsRead