Southerners love a good tale. They are born reciters, great memory retainers, diary keepers, letter exchangers . . . great talkers.
Eudora WeltyRead
For the source of the short story is usually lyrical. And all writers speak from, and speak to, emotions eternally the same in all of us: love, pity, terror do not show favorites or leave any of us out.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writers express universal emotions that resonate with all people regardless of time or place.
This quote emphasizes that at the heart of storytelling lies a lyrical essence that connects with fundamental human emotions. Eudora Welty suggests that emotions such as love, pity, and terror are inherent to the human experience and are not limited by individual differences, making storytelling a powerful tool for shared understanding and connection.
Themes
StorytellingEmotionsUniversalWritersConnection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a writing workshop to inspire budding authors to explore deep emotions in their stories.
More from Eudora Welty
All quotes →Writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer's own life.
Eudora WeltyRead
A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.
Eudora WeltyRead
The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.
Eudora WeltyRead
The first act of insight is throw away the labels. In fiction, while we do not necessarily write about ourselves, we write out of ourselves, using ourselves; what we learn from, what we are sensitive to, what we feel strongly about--these become our characters and go to make our plots. Characters in fiction are conceived from within, and they have, accordingly, their own interior life; they are individuals every time.
Eudora WeltyRead
Each day the storm clouds were opening like great purple flowers and pouring out their dark thunder. Each nightfall, the storm was laid down on their houses like a burden the day had carried.
Eudora WeltyRead
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