Home / Quotes / Quote by Alan Lightman

Quote by Alan Lightman

“Every essay - the subject matter of every essay - is ultimately about the essayist; him or herself. That ultimately, every essayist is writing about his or her view of the world.”

Quote by Alan Lightman

Author

Alan Lightman is an American physicist and an accomplished writer. Born on November 28, 1948, he is renowned for his contributions to physics and his literary achievements that blend science and fiction. more

You May Also Like

“In fiction writing, I would say there are several different strands that have been woven through my own writing, and each influenced by a different group of writers.”

Writing Has Beens Different My Own Fiction Groups Woven Fiction Writing Strands

Author:Alan Lightman

“Another strand of my writing is the importance of the idea. If you think about fiction writing as a spectrum, where at one end of the spectrum in the infrared, are the story tellers, and the people for whom creation of wonderful characters and telling a good story is the most important thing.”

People Ifs Thinking Writing Important Ideas Ends Character Stories Fiction Wonderful Creation Importance Important Things Spectrum Good Story Fiction Writing Strands Infrared

Author:Alan Lightman

“"And" seems to me closest. "And" nods toward the real. And "and" is the path to perspective. To feel and see from more angles and know all of them true, even the incomprehensible ones, even the ones that contradict one another.”

Knows Feels Real Seems Path Perspective Closest Angle

Author:Jane Hirshfield

“I once was asked to contribute to a mushroom poem anthology. I didn't have anything, and so instead ended up writing the introduction. I think that request made me more alert to mushrooms, and now they've cropped up in my work, the way mushrooms themselves do after rain, quite a lot. But I've only just now taken up mushroom hunting, after going to a class offered at my local library.”

Thinking Way Writing Made Class Taken Rain Library Locals Hunting Introduction Request Mushrooms Anthology

Author:Jane Hirshfield

“I need more and more silence, it feels. Poems don't leap into my mind when I'm distracted, turned outward, with other people, listening to music.”

People Needs Feels Mind Silence Listening Leap Listening To Music Distracted

Author:Jane Hirshfield

“It's more for me as with going into a forest: if you sit quietly for a long time, the life around you emerges. As the world grows ever more clamorous, my hunger for silence steepens. I unplug the landline.”

Ifs World Long Grows Silence Long Time Hunger Forests

Author:Jane Hirshfield

“I don't have a cell phone (though for years I've kept saying, "soon").”

Years Phones Cells Cell Phone

Author:Jane Hirshfield

“Every other year or so I go to one of those great generous places, the artist retreats. Some of the poems in The Beauty were written at the MacDowell Colony, in New Hampshire, and others at Civitella Ranieri, in Umbria.”

Years Artist Written Generous Retreat Colony Hampshire New Hampshire Umbria

Author:Jane Hirshfield

“I've gone to Yaddo many times, I've worked at the Rockefeller Foundation's Center for Scholars and Artists in Bellagio. That these are places of beauty and of changed landscape is helpful - but far more important for me is that they offer what I feel as a monastic luxury: undisturbed time.”

Feels Important Artist Gone Changed Offers Foundation Luxury Landscape Helpful Scholar

Author:Jane Hirshfield

“Touch seems to be as essential as sunlight.”

Love Seems Essentials Sunlight

Book:A Natural History of the Senses

Source: A Natural History of the Senses