We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
Writing's funny, it's like walking down a hall in the dark looking for the light switch, and suddenly you find it, flip it on, and then you discover the hallway you passed through is papered with the novel you've written.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing can be an obscure process, but through exploration, the end result reveals itself in unexpected ways.
This quote by Jonathan Safran Foer illustrates the often elusive nature of writing, comparing it to the experience of navigating a dark hallway. The moment of discovery—finding the light switch—symbolizes the writer's breakthrough, while the papered hallway represents the culmination of their creative efforts, revealing that the journey of writing is fraught with uncertainty but ultimately leads to a tangible outcome.
Themes
WritingCreativityDiscoveryProcessExploration
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a writing workshop to inspire participants about the creative process.
More from Jonathan Safran Foer
All quotes →Memory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled. Each second was two hundred yards, to be walked, crawled. You couldn't see the next hour, it was so far in the distance. Tomorrow was over the horizon, and would take an entire day to reach.
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She was not crying Which surprised me very much But I understand now That she had found places For her melancholy That were behind more masks Than only her eyes
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What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.
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A few weeks after the worst day, I started writing lots of letters. I don't know why, but it was one of the only things that made my boots lighter.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
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