Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.
John GardnerRead
People will tell you that writing is too difficult, that it's impossible to get your work published, that you might as well hang yourself. Meanwhile, they'll keep writing and you'll have hanged yourself.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pursuing writing can be challenging, but self-doubt shouldn't lead to despair.
This quote emphasizes the harsh realities and doubts that aspiring writers face, as well as the importance of perseverance. It illustrates how external negativity can deter one from following their passion, suggesting that while others may continue to create, succumbing to the pressure and despair only leads to stagnation and missed opportunities.
Themes
WritingPerseveranceMotivationSelf-DoubtAspiration
In practice
Example use cases
During a writers' workshop to inspire participants to overcome their fears of writing.
More from John Gardner
All quotes →Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound.
John GardnerRead
i understand that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. i understood that, finally and absolutely, i alone exist. all the rest, i saw, is merely what pushes me, or what i push against, blindly - as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. i create the whole universe, blink by blink.
John GardnerRead
...ultimately it come down to, are you making or are you destroying? If you try very hard to create ways of living, create dreams of what is possible, then you win. If you don't, you may make a fortune in ten years, but you're not going to be read in twenty years, and that's that.
John GardnerRead
We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images.
John GardnerRead
They watch on, evil, incredibly stupid, enjoying my destruction. 'Poor Grendel's had an accident,' I whisper. 'So may you all.
John GardnerRead
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Every day I would wake up and think, 'Today is another missed opportunity to do something important.' After enough days like this, you start feeling like you are getting old, even when you are relatively young. We are all natural entrepreneurs, and being manacled to a desk job is not for us.
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A lot of times I find that people who are blessed with the most talent don't ever develop that attitude, and the ones who aren't blessed in that way are the most competitive and have the biggest heart.
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You ought to run the hardest when you feel the worst. Never let the other guy know you're down.
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You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together.
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Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.
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