When I have one martini, I feel bigger, wiser, taller. When I have a second, I feel superlative. When I have more, there's no holding me.
William FaulknerRead
Nothing can destroy the good writer. The only thing that can alter the good writer is death. Good ones don't have time to bother with success or getting rich.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A true writer is resilient and focuses on their craft rather than on fame or wealth.
In this quote, Faulkner emphasizes that the essence of a good writer lies in their dedication to writing and not in the pursuit of success or material gain. He suggests that while external factors like fame and wealth can be fleeting, the impact and legacy of a good writer is something that remains untouched by such concerns, and only life itself can put an end to their influence.
Themes
WriterCraftDedicationLegacyDeath
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, an instructor might share this quote to inspire budding writers to focus on their passion rather than external rewards.
More from William Faulkner
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When grown people speak of the innocence of children, they dont really know what they mean. Pressed, they will go a step further and say, Well, ignorance then. The child is neither. There is no crime which a boy of eleven had not envisaged long ago. His only innocence is, he may not be old enough to desire the fruits of it...his ignorance is, he does not know how to commit it...
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Maybe times are never strange to women: it is just one continuous monotonous thing full of the repeated follies of their menfolks.
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He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn't need a word for that any more than for pride or fear....One day I was talking to Cora. She prayed for me because she believed I was blind to sin, wanting me to kneel and pray too, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.
William FaulknerRead
Ever since then I have believed that God is not only a gentleman and a sport; he is a Kentuckian too.
William FaulknerRead
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Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view.
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