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Quote by Marie de France

Work

Medieval Lays and Legends of Marie de France

This book compiles a selection of medieval French poetry and narrative works, traditionally attributed to the medieval poet Marie de France. The collection includes various lays and legends, showcasing the author's storytelling and lyrical abilities within the context of medieval French literature. more

Author

Marie de France
Marie de France

Marie de France was a French medieval poet active in the 12th century. Her works primarily consist of narrative and lyrical poems, with her most famous works being 'The Song of Roland' and 'Tristan and Isolde'. Her contributions to literature are significant, and she is considered one of the representative figures of French medieval literature. more

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“Would-be novelists need to bring equal parts arrogance and ignorance to the task before them. The arrogance is almost self-explanatory. Walk into any bookstore or library, calculate how many lifetimes the average person would need to read all the fiction contained therein. To think that one has anything to contribute, to any genre or tradition, takes genuine hubris.”

“It's not that you get a cliché and then wiggle it about or use synonyms. You don't take an ordinary decorative paragraph and give it style. What you're trying to do is be faithful to your perceptions and transmit them as faithfully as you can. I say these sentences until they sound right. There's no objective reason why they're right. They just sound right to me.”

“You don't realize what a strain it is on the nerves to write or think-of-writing all day long, and to sleep full of nervous dreams, and to wake up not knowing who one is: this all stems from anxiety about finishing the book, about time 'growing short', etc., and the perpetual strain of invention.”

“Do not beat up on yourself. Do not criticize your writing as lousy, inadequate, stupid, or any of the evil epithets that you are used to heaping on yourself. Such self-bashing is never useful. If you indulge in it, your writing doesn't stand a chance. So when your mind turns on you, turn it back, stamp it down, shut it up, and keep writing.”