I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I'm one of the world's great rewriters.
James A. MichenerRead
I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.
Interpretation
Writing is a passionate expression that intertwines language and human feelings.
This quote by James A. Michener emphasizes the beauty and complexity of writing as an art form. It highlights the writer's admiration for the fluidity and rhythm of words, which connect profoundly with human emotions, suggesting that writing is not just a technical skill but also an emotional experience that resonates deeply with both the writer and the reader.
In practice
In a writing workshop to inspire creativity.
I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I'm one of the world's great rewriters.
Whenever I start a book, I swear it's going to be a short one. But then it's, 'Who was his grandfather? And how did he get there in the first place? And what kind of animals is he chasing?'
Rampaging horsemen can conquer; only the city can civilize.
I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation.
If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.
I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.
How can even the best novelist or playwright invent someone like Augustus Caesar or Catherine the Great, Galileo or Florence Nightingale? How can screenwriters create better action stories or human dramas than exist, thousand upon thousand, throughout the many centuries of recorded history?
You have to appreciate the spiritual component of having an opportunity to do something as wondrous as writing. You should be practical and smart and you should have a good agent and you should work really, really hard. But you should also be filled with awe and gratitude about this amazing way to be in the world.
I can see myself as a very old man in a terrific wheelchair. Only, I won't be photographing the tree outside my window, the way Steichen did. I'll be photographing other old people.
Writers seem mesmerized by the state - the temporal entity. The word 'perestroika' is impressed somehow on our minds. But that is not the duty of a writer.
The big problem with songwriting for me is starting a new song. It's the thing where all the anguish exists, not in the writing of the song, but the starting of the new song.
I sense Light as the giver of all presences, and material as spent Light. What is made by Light casts a shadow, and the shadow belongs to Light.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.