I was nearly 40 when I started. I had no fear that I wasn't going to write. I knew it was just delayed. Then, my goodness, I never stopped.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the importance of perseverance and the understanding that success can come later in life.
Jane Gardam reflects on her journey as a writer, emphasizing that starting a passion or career later in life does not equate to failure. She conveys a powerful message about resilience and the belief that creativity and success can flourish at any age, illustrating that it’s never too late to pursue one’s dreams.
In practice
During a motivational speech on pursuing passions, one might say this quote to encourage older individuals.
Stories of all lengths and depths come from different parts of the cave. For a novel, you must lay in mental, physical and spiritual provision as for a siege or for a time of hectic explosions, while a short story is, or can be, a steady, timed flame like the lighting of a blow lamp on a building site full of dry tinder.
I discovered that writing was very nice indeed when I was very young, and I never changed. I don't think my style has changed very much at all - though I hope what I say is a bit more interesting. It's about getting to know a character and loving them, I think.
I started to write as a child as soon as I could read, or even before, when my mother read me Beatrix Potter at bedtime. Writing seemed to me to be the only sensible way to live and be happy.
In modern novels, there is no one I want to copy. My style 'is a poor thing, but it is my own.'
You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go.
I have seen American determination in people like Debbi Sommers. She runs a furniture rental business for conventions in Las Vegas. When 9/11 hit, and again, when the recession tanked the conventions business, she didn't give up, close down, or lay off her people. She taught them not just to rent furniture, but also to manufacture it.
It’s OK to get butterfly in your stomach; the key is to learn how to make them fly in formation.
Every time you share your vision, you strengthen your own subconscious belief that you can achieve it.
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Just write. If you have to make a choice, if you say, 'Oh well, I'm going to put the writing away until my children are grown,' then you don't really want to be a writer. If you want to be a writer, you do your writing... If you don't do it, you probably don't want to be a writer, you just want to have written and be famous—which is very different.
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