Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.
Alex HaleyRead
That's what happens with writing. Ingredients bubble and cook. Material becomes substance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing transforms raw ideas into meaningful content through a process of development.
In this quote, Alex Haley emphasizes the creative process involved in writing, comparing it to cooking where various ingredients blend and transform into a cohesive dish. It suggests that just as raw ingredients require time and careful attention to become a gourmet meal, so too do words and ideas need to simmer in a writer's mind before they transform into polished, impactful writing.
Themes
WritingCreativityTransformationProcessExpression
In practice
Example use cases
A writer's workshop could use this quote to discuss the importance of allowing ideas to mature.
More from Alex Haley
All quotes βTying the little folks with the older folks is a great and powerful tool to preserve and to protect the family and the individual.
Alex HaleyRead
I think one of the most fascinating things you can do after you learn about your own people is to study something about the history and culture of other people.
Alex HaleyRead
In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.
Alex HaleyRead
Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.
Alex HaleyRead
I certainly wasn't seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me, asking questions. One was, "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books.
Alex HaleyRead
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When you try to unravel something you've written, you belittle it in a way. It was created as a mystery.
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The passion for art is, as for believers, very religious. It unites people, its message is of common humanity. Art has become my religion - others pray in church. It's a banality, but you don't possess art, it possesses you. It's like falling in love.
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No matter how close to personal experience a story might be, inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and, actually, whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words.
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Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.
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Until I was a teenager, I used red pokeberries for lipstick and a burnt matchstick for eyeliner. I used honeysuckle for perfume.
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