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.
Interpretation
Writing is simply a task that requires effort, regardless of the method used.
Sinclair Lewis emphasizes that writing, like any other form of labor, requires dedication and effort. The essence of writing lies not in the tools or techniques used, but in the commitment and hard work behind the process.
In practice
In a workshop about overcoming writer's block, this quote can inspire attendees to stay committed to their 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.
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.
She did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them.
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.
I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.
The function of the artist is to make people like life better than they have before.
Fantasy is totally wide open; all you really have to do is follow the rules you've set. But if you're writing about science, you have to first learn what you're writing about.
A young man is afraid of his demon and puts his hand over the demon's mouth sometimes and speaks for him. And the things the young man says are very rarely poetry.
I never regret things. It's a really dangerous thing to say, but for anyone involved in the arts, the bad things that happen make for good material. It's not a comfortable truth, but it is true.
Rhythm is a perception of time... when drawing, the tiredness of the hand is a rhythm.
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