The poet is one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive.
Anais NinRead
If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing should be passionate and expressive; otherwise, it lacks value.
In this quote, Anais Nin emphasizes the importance of emotional investment in writing. She argues that true writing must resonate deeply with the writer's feelings and experiences, as it is this authenticity that gives writing its significance and impact in culture.
Themes
WritingPassionEmotionCreativityExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, to encourage students to be more expressive, a teacher could say, 'Remember what Anais Nin said: if you do not breathe through writing, your words will lack the fire they need.'
More from Anais Nin
All quotes βAnxiety is love's greatest killer, because it is like the stranglehold of the drowning.
Anais NinRead
We celebrate peace. Yet we pay no attention to the ways of curing aggression in human beings. And when one sees in psychoanalysis hostility disappearing as people conquer their fears, one wonders if the cure is not there.
Anais NinRead
The impetus to grow and live intensely is so powerful in me I cannot resist it. I will work, I will love my husband, but I will fulfill myself.
Anais NinRead
We have been poisoned by fairy tales.
Anais NinRead
But I lie. I embellish. My words are not deep enough. They disguise, they conceal. I will not rest until I have told of my descent into a sensuality which was as dark, as magnificent, as wild, as my moments of mystic creation have been dazzling, ecstatic, exalted.
Anais NinRead
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If a story doesn't give you a hard-on in the first couple of scenes, throw it in the goddamned garbage.
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