I began writing when I was still in the British Foreign Service, and it was then understood that even if you wrote about butterfly collecting, you used another name.
John Le CarreRead
Well, certainly I don't think that there are very many good writers who don't live without a sense of tension. If they haven't got one immediately available to them, then they usually manage to manufacture it in their private lives.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Good writers often experience tension in their lives, which fuels their creativity and writing process.
In this quote, John Le Carre conveys the idea that a sense of tension is a vital element in a writer's life, serving as a source of inspiration and motivation. He suggests that if writers do not have external conflicts or challenges, they find ways to create tension in their personal lives, as this emotional and psychological turmoil enhances their storytelling abilities and depth.
Themes
TensionWritersCreativityInspirationConflict
In practice
Example use cases
During a workshop on creative writing, a speaker shares the importance of tension in storytelling using this quote.
More from John Le Carre
All quotes →In every war zone that I've been in, there has been a reality and then there has been the public perception of why the war was being fought. In every crisis, the issues have been far more complex than the public has been allowed to know.
John Le CarreRead
The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.
John Le CarreRead
The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous.
John Le CarreRead
Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
John Le CarreRead
If I had to put a name to it, I would wish that all my books were entertainments. I think the first thing you've got to do is grab the reader by the ear, and make him sit down and listen. Make him laugh, make him feel. We all want to be entertained at a very high level.
John Le CarreRead
Similar quotes
That's how I make work. Along the way, I take notes, I read about history and popular culture. Sometimes I act out things in the studio. I go back to my mother's hair salon so I can hear three voices going all at once. I pull inspiration from everything.
Mark BradfordRead
I want to reach as many people as possible with the message of music, of wonderful opera.
Luciano PavarottiRead
It is in their 'good' characters that novelists make, unawares, the most shocking self- revelations.
C. S. LewisRead
Photography begins not in the camera but in the _x000D_ mind and the eye. The real work is one of noticing and appreciating, seeing things clearly and differently, and _x000D_ sharing that vision with others. I have developed my _x000D_ vision and my photographic craft in order to bring _x000D_ the beauty of nature to light in a fresh way that _x000D_ can inspire and nourish people.
Bill AtkinsonRead
In my writing, I want to be laid bare as a human being.
Denis JohnsonRead
I think the only thing filmmakers can do is try to make good movies and make them as long as they allow us to keep making them. But at the end of the day, it is a business, and if audiences don't care, there's nothing we can do. It'll just go away, I guess.
Robert ZemeckisRead