Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better.
Edmund WhiteRead
There is a whole industry in America of people who want to write, and those who teach it. Even if the students don't end up writing, what's good about them taking the courses is, they become great readers, learning to appreciate the writing.
Interpretation
Writing courses enhance reading skills, fostering appreciation for literature.
Edmund White emphasizes the value of writing courses not just for aspiring writers but also for students who may not pursue writing as a career. Even if they do not write professionally, the experience of studying writing cultivates their skills as readers, allowing them to develop a deeper appreciation for literary works and the craft of writing itself.
In practice
During a seminar on the importance of literary education, this quote could underscore the broader benefits of writing courses.
Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better.
I've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.
In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.
If bigots oppose gay marriage so vehemently, it must be because marriage is a defining institution for them; gays will never be fully accepted until they can marry and adopt, like anyone else.
When we are young... we often experience things in the present with a nostalgia-in-advance, but we seldom guess what we will truly prize years from now.
I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission.
For some years now I have read through the Bible twice every year. If you picture the Bible to be a mighty tree and every word a little branch, I have shaken every one of these branches because I wanted to know what it was and what it meant.
Some people read so little they have rickets of the mind.
Although it may be true that the notion of teaching virtues such as honesty or integrity arouses little controversy, it is also true that vague consensus on the goodness of these virtues conceals a great deal of actual disagreement over their definitions.
That best academy, a mother's knee.
The hand is, in the highest degree, a human characteristic. It is man's organ of grasp and of the sense of touch, while in animals these two functions are relegated to the mouth.
Schoolboy days are no happier than the days of afterlife, but we look back upon them regretfully because we have forgotten our punishments at school and how we grieved when our marbles were lost and our kites destroyed β because we have forgotten all the sorrows and privations of the canonized ethic and remember only its orchard robberies, its wooden-sword pageants, and its fishing holidays.
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