I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story.
Interpretation
Writing good sentences sequentially leads to the creation of a compelling story.
This quote by Amy Hempel highlights the fundamental process of storytelling, emphasizing that quality writing is built step by step. Each well-crafted sentence contributes to the overall narrative, suggesting that storytelling is an art that requires patience and dedication to develop over time.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a writing workshop to encourage budding authors.
Then the children went to bed, or at least went upstairs, and the men joined the women for a cigarette on the porch, absently picking ticks engorged like grapes off the sleeping dogs. And when the men kissed the women good night, and their weekend whiskers scratched the women's cheeks, the women did not think shave, they thought stay.
I sleep with a glass of water on the nightstand so I can see by its level if the coastal earth is trembling or if the shaking is still me.
if it's true your life flashes past your eyes before you die, then it is also the truth that your life rushes forth when you are ready to start to truly be alive.
I'm just glad that I'm the musical equivalent of a character actress, because blues singers can keep singing and having an audience at 35, and someone like Madonna's gonna have to find something else to do, 'cos I don't care how pointy those bras are that she wears, they're still gonna look a little odd when she's 55!
To end up with a canvas that is no less beautiful than the empty canvas is to begin with.
Acting is different from stand-up. It gives you this ability to enter into another character, to create another person.
For years, I sort of would try to write a story that somehow fit the title. And I don't think it happened for maybe another four years that I actually thought of a story, the plot of a story that corresponded to that phrase.
A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before.
Write your own songs. It helps you to mean what you're singing, which will then make it mean something to listeners.
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