The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning
Anne TylerRead
It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.
Interpretation
Parenthood enriches one's life and creativity, adding depth to experiences.
In this quote, Anne Tyler expresses how the experience of having children has transformed her perspective and enriched her identity as a writer. While the responsibilities of parenthood may have temporarily slowed her creative output, it ultimately allowed her to draw from a deeper well of personal experience, resulting in more meaningful writing.
In practice
During a speech about parenting at a community event.
The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning
I don't know what takes more courage: surviving a lifelong endurance test because you once made a promise or breaking free, disrupting all your world.
I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a thought to influences or method or any other writerly concerns
I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.
And she thought what a clean, simple life she would have led if it weren't for love.
There is no true life. Your true life is the one you end up with, whatever it may be. You just do the best you can with what you've got.
The family is one of nature's masterpieces.
When I was diagnosed with cancer at age 22, I learned just how much cancer affects families when it affects individuals.
Pregnancy seemed like a tremendous abdication of control. Something growing inside you which would eventually usurp your life.
On the good days, my mother would haul out the ukulele and we'd sit around the kitchen table - it was a cardboard table with a linoleum top - and sing.
My mother... she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her.
The best bought-up children are those who have seen thier parents as they are. Hypocrisy is not the first duty of a parent.
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