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Quote by Nadine Gordimer

“Any writer of any worth at all hopes to play only a pocket-torch of light - and rarely, through genius, a sudden flambeau - into the bloody yet beautiful labyrinth of human experience, of being.”

Quote by Nadine Gordimer

Book:Living in Hope and History

Work

Living in Hope and History

This book compiles a series of speeches and essays that delve into the author's personal journey and its connection to significant historical moments. It highlights the resilience and optimism that can arise from challenging circumstances, offering a narrative that intertwines personal stories with broader historical trends. more

Author

Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer was a South African writer renowned for her profound social commentary and literary achievements. Her works often delve into issues of apartheid, class differences, and gender, winning numerous literary awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature. more

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“I suffer as always from the fear of putting down the first line. It is amazing the terrors, the magics, the prayers, the straitening shyness that assail one. It is as though the words were not only indelible but that they spread out like dye in water and color everything around them. A strange and mystic business, writing.”

Writing Firsts Suffering Water Lines Prayer Magic Strange Color Terror Spread Mystic Shyness Indelible Business Writing

Book:Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters

Source: Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters

“Writers are greatly respected. The intelligent public is wonderfully patient with them, continues to read them, and endures disappointment after disappointment, waiting to hear from art what it does not hear from theology, philosophy, social theory, and what it cannot hear from pure science. Out of the struggle at the center has come an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for.”

Source: There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction

“When it comes to details, more is not necessarily better.”

Writing Details

Book:Get That Novel Written!

Source: Get That Novel Written!

“I first heard the term "meta-novel" at a writer's conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The idea is that even though each book in a series stands alone, when read collectively they form one big ongoing novel about the main character. Each book represents its own arc: in book one of the series we meet the character and establish a meta-goal that will carry him through further books, in book two that meta-goal is tested, in book three - you get the picture.”

Source: How to Write Killer Fiction: The Funhouse of Mystery & the Roller Coaster of Suspense

“Think about it: Reducing crime and poverty and ensuring that we have an educated, stable work force has a direct effect on you and me and the future of our country.”

Thinking Country Force Poverty Effects Crime Direct Educated Our Country Stable Reducing Direct Effect

Author:Jane Fonda

“Write from the heart, what has meaning to you personally; have the patience and discipline to sit down and do it every day whether you're feeling inspired or not; never be afraid to take chances, in fact, make sure you take chances. As soon as you become complacent, you become boring ... . Read as much as possible, not simply in the genre, or what you think you're interested in, but other things as well.”

Thinking Writing Wells Heart Facts Feelings Chance Discipline Down And Inspired Boring Genre Take A Chance Complacent

Author:Charles de Lint

“There are readers who want every point to be clearly and unambiguously set forth, and there are those who want to pry ideas and meanings out for themselves.”

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Author:John M. Ford

“I don't know what issues concerning identity have helped contemporary fiction evolve to what it is now. All I know is that the range of voices that are being heard and published is a lot more diverse than when I was coming up.”

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Author:Jessica Hagedorn

“Play: It is an an activity which proceeds within certain limits of time and space, in a visible order, according to rules freely accepted, and outside the sphere of necessity or material utility. The play-mood is one of rapture and enthusiasm, and is sacred or festive in accordance with the occasion. A feeling of exaltation and tension accompanies the action.”

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Book:Homo Ludens

Source: Homo Ludens

“I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or State, to my circle of friends or even to my own family... Such isolation is sometimes bitter, but I do not regret being cut off from the understanding and sympathy of other men. I lose something by it,to be sure, but I am compensated for it in being rendered independent of the customs, opinions and prejudices of others, and am not tempted to rest my peace of mind upon such shifting foundations.”

Source: The fight against war