"Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt, use it-don't cheat with it."
"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer."
"As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand."
"In order to write about life first you must live it."
– Ernest Hemingway
That poster is my favourite and I have it up against my wall in the office. Words to live by. Now everyone is mocking me about it, because I wrote before I was an editor. I normally get remarks such as "oh, so that is why you were behaving that way" or "so, this must be the first time you are sober then"
ReplyDeleteWrite drunk, edit sober is a hilarious but true one. Sometimes we get so held up in what is 'right' about what we need to put down on paper, that the voice is no longer ours.
ReplyDeleteI'm on a Hemingway kick right now so I appreciate this. Hope they're good inspiration for you to get back into your routine!
ReplyDeleteSo love that you posted this. Such wise words-- especially love how he described what it means to be a good book, that it's not only alive in your imagination and captivating you, but as if it all actually happened to you. That's the power of words.
ReplyDeleteSuch wonderful insight:) Happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteWell said!
ReplyDeleteFantastic quotes! Love the top image.
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