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Quote by Elizabeth Enright

Work

The Four-Story Mistake

In this novel, the protagonist navigates a world where the four stories of a building are not as they seem, leading to a profound examination of reality and self. more

Author

Elizabeth Enright
Elizabeth Enright

Elizabeth Enright was an American children's literature writer, born on September 17, 1909, and died on June 8, 1968. Her works are known for their rich imagination and profound insight into the psychology of children, making significant contributions to the field of children's literature. more

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“Where do [writers] get [their] ideas? And the answer is that no one knows where they come from and nobody should know. They evolve in the air, they float down from some mysterious heaven and we reach and grab one, to grasp in our imagination, and to make it our own. One writer might overhear a conversation in a cafe and a whole novel will be built from that moment. Another might see an article in a newspaper and a plot will suggest itself immediately. Another might hear about an unpleasant incident that happened to a friend of a friend in a supermarket . . . .”

“Proponents of established norms often push rules like 'Write what you know' on new writers. In truth, everything we write is about us, whether we realise it or not. The texts and subtexts we create are layered with our worldview, imagination, passions, sense of humour, blind spots, biases, and fears. In my novel 'The Vorbing,' the opening vampire attack was something I only understood years later as my way of dealing with PTSD from a real violent incident, proving how our personal experiences shape our writing in ways we might not even notice.”

“We decided to become development psychologists and study children because there aren't any Martians. These brilliant beings with the little bodies and big heads are the closest we can get to a truly alien intelligence (even if we may occasionally suspect that they are bent on making us their slaves.)”