Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Authenticity in writing is crucial, while striving for originality can be misleading.
In this quote, W. H. Auden emphasizes the importance of being true to oneself and one's experiences in writing, rather than focusing excessively on being unique or original. He suggests that authenticity reflects genuine expression and connection, while the pursuit of originality can lead to artificiality, detracting from the writer's true voice.
Themes
AuthenticityOriginalityWritingSelf-ExpressionCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speech about the artistic journey of writers in a workshop.
More from W. H. Auden
All quotes βThat the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.
W. H. AudenRead
Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire; it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire.
W. H. AudenRead
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
W. H. AudenRead
Music is the best means we have of digesting time.
W. H. AudenRead
'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'
W. H. AudenRead
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Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it's always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins.
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Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right β as right as you can, anyway β it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it.
Stephen KingRead
Sometimes I feel as if I am read before I write. When I write a poem about my mother, Palestinians think my mother is a symbol for Palestine. But I write as a poet, and my mother is my mother. She's not a symbol.
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