Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes-it is just work.
Interpretation
Writing is a straightforward task that requires hard work, not secret techniques or methods.
Sinclair Lewis highlights the notion that many writers often overcomplicate the process of writing by believing in certain methods or secrets. In reality, the act of writing is primarily about dedicating time and effort; regardless of the tools used, it fundamentally remains a labor-intensive endeavor.
In practice
In a writer's workshop when discussing the challenges of the craft.
Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good-- kept him in touch with Higher Things.
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
She did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them.
Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it's still just work.
It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
There are dozens of young poets and fictioneers most of them a little insane in the tradition of James Joyce, who, however insane they may be, have refused to be genteel and traditional and dull.
To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, To raise the genius, and to mend the heart
I find that when I get on stage now, I don't want to perform a lot of my songs because they don't feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.
What I mean is sometimes, for an artist, chronic pain can be a gift.
A created thing is never invented and it is never true: it is always and ever itself.
That's what happens in a good horror movie: there are always metaphors of greater subjects like humanity and empathy and compassion. It's not about the action and scary moments: You really care about these characters because they're mirrors of our own reflections.
One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.