They say that to be a writer you must first have an unhappy childhood. I don't know if unhappiness is necessary, but I think maybe some children who have suffered a loss too great for words grow up into writers who are always trying to find those words, trying to find a meaning for the way they have lived
Interpretation
Unhappiness can inspire creativity in writers as they seek to express their pain.
Cynthia Rylant suggests that many writers draw from their challenging experiences, particularly from a troubled childhood. The quote reflects the idea that those who have faced significant loss or hardship may find themselves compelled to articulate their feelings and experiences through writing, thereby searching for meaning in their struggles.
In practice
This quote could be used in a workshop on creative writing, highlighting the power of personal experiences.
Neurologically, I'm a quadriplegic, so virtually everything about my work has been driven by my learning disabilities, which are quite severe, and my lack of facial recognition, which I'm sure is what drove me to paint portraits in the first place.
Madness is the absolute break with the work of art; it forms the constitutive moment of abolition, which dissolves in time the truth of the work of art.
I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war - the brutal corrupting viciousness of its doing to the minds and bodies of men; and, that my photographs might be a powerful emotional catalyst to the reasoning which would help this vile and criminal stupidity from beginning again.
When I am writing best, I really am lost in my world. I lose track of the outside world. I have a difficult time balancing between my real world and the artificial world.
Indians are marvelous storytellers. In some ways, that oral tradition is stronger than the written tradition.
For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew.
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