No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
Interpretation
Emotional authenticity in writing resonates with readers.
This quote emphasizes that a writer must authentically express their emotions to evoke a genuine response from the reader. If the writer does not feel deeply about their work, the reader is unlikely to feel anything either, highlighting the importance of raw emotionality in storytelling.
In practice
During a writing workshop, I used this quote to illustrate the importance of emotional depth in storytelling.
He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.
How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.
There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.
Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.
There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.
He was intrigued by the power of words, not the literary words that filled the books in the library but the sharp, staccato words that went into the writing of news stories. Words that went for the jugular. Active verbs that danced and raced on the page.
A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again.
I am never going to write for the sake of writing.
Every good writer or filmmaker has something eating at them, right? That they can't quite get off their back . And so your job is to make your audience care about your obsessions.
You hand the baton on, and that's why roles like 'Medea' resonate for years and years, as each new actor comes to it.
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
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