“By beginning a diary, I was already conceding that life would be more bearable if I looked at it as an adventure and a tale. I was telling myself the story of a life, and this transmutes into an adventure the things which can shatter you.”
“Often as writers, we are surprised by what we learn about ourselves. It runs counter to what we’ve thought about who we are. But it is closer to the truth.”
Source: Writing Affirmations: A Collection of Positive Messages to Inspire Writers
“Keeping a journal: The short entries are often as dry as instant tea. Writing them down is like pouring hot water over them to release their aroma.”
Source: A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945
“Authentic writing cannot be coerced.”
Source: A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945
“He had always kept a journal. When he was a young man, in a village outside Rotherham in Yorkshire, he had written a daily examination of his conscience...In the days of the butchery, his journal was full of his desire to be a great man, and his self-castigation... he was a good Latin teacher... a good supervisor... but he was not using his unique gifts, whatever they were, he was *going* nowhere, and he meant to go far. He could not read the circular and painful journals now, with their cries of suffocation and their self-condemnatory periods, but he had them in a bank, for they were part of a record, of an accurate record, of the development of the mind and character of William Adamson, who still meant to be a great man.
(-Morpho Eugenia, Angels and Insects)”
Source: Angels and Insects
“In our notebooks , we press our past selves between the pages like diaphanous flowers, so that we can look back and remember who we used to be.”
Source: Little Stories of Your Life: Find Your Voice, Share Your World and Tell Your Story
“The journal preserved her dignity; she might look and behave like and live the life of a trained nurse, but she was really an important writer in disguise. And at a time when she was cut off from everything she knew - family, home, friends - writing was the thread of continuity. It was what she had always done.”
Source: Atonement
“And so, here is Rapa’s book, my tribute to her, my one true friend, my love.”
Source: Inga
“He had always kept a journal. When he was a young man, in a village outside Rotherham in Yorkshire, he had written a daily examination of his conscience...In the days of the butchery, his journal was full of his desire to be a great man, and his self-castigation... he was a good Latin teacher... a good supervisor... but he was not using his unique gifts, whatever they were, he was *going* nowhere, and he meant to go far. He could not read the circular and painful journals now, with their cries of suffocation and their self-condemnatory periods, but he had them in a bank, for they were part of a record, of an accurate record, of the development of the mind and character of William Adamson, who still meant to be a great man.
(-Angels & Insects: Morpho Eugenia)”
“The past is not the present, so let your future live”
Source: Your Pocket Coach - 25 Powerful Reminders