All the music I loved as a child, people thought it was junk. People were unaware of the subtext in so many of those records but if you were a kid you were just completely tuned in, even though you didn't always say - you wouldn't dare say it was beautiful.
We writers, as we work our way deeper into our craft, learn to drop more and more personal clues. Like burglars who secretly wish to be caught, we leave our fingerprints on broken locks, our voiceprints in bugged rooms, our footprints in the wet concrete.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writers tend to embed personal elements in their work, revealing part of themselves through their writing.
This quote by Ross Macdonald emphasizes the idea that writers gradually infuse their personal experiences and identity into their craft. As they grow in skill, they inevitably leave traces of their individuality in their works, similar to how a burglar leaves behind evidence. This highlights the intimate connection between the writer and their creations, where the act of writing becomes a means of self-revelation.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a talk about the writing process during a workshop, one might say, 'As writers, we often leave our fingerprints on our stories, revealing who we are.'
Similar quotes
Prose is something that is persistent in staying in one place long enough to not only zero in on the dramatic effect of something that might have happened, or something that might have been seen, but also in watching how it played out and thinking about the cause and the effect.
A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects.
In other words, the unique value of the "authentic" work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value. This ritualistic basis, however remote, is still recognizable as secularized ritual even in the most profane forms of the cult of beauty.
People think that my favorite roles to do are villains, but I find comedy to be the most challenging and rewarding.
We must infuse our lives with art. Our national leaders must be informed that we want them to use our taxes to support street theatre in order to oppose street gangs. We should have a well-supported regional theatre in order to oppose regionalism and.