“Orwell was dealing with communism and his disillusionment with communism in Russia and what he saw the communists do in Spain. His novel was a response to those political situations. Whereas I was interested in more things than the political atmosphere. I was considering the whole social atmosphere: the impact of TV and radio and the lack of education. I could see the coming event of schoolteachers not teaching reading anymore. The less they taught, the more you wouldn't need books.” NeedsBookWholePoliticalReadingSocialSituationNovelSawsTeachingEventsTaughtTvsImpactResponseRadioRussiaCommunismAtmosphereCommunistConsideringSpainDisillusionmentLack Of Education Author:Ray Bradbury
“Music's always part of my writing. I think all art is interconnected. You can't create or experience one without its influences bleeding into another. In my writing, music's mostly something that feeds my inspiration and mood while I'm writing, but it's also taught me how to score scenes and even novels. The rise and fall of the storyline echoes the flow of a good piece of music.” ThinkingWritingArtInspirationFallNovelPiecesInfluenceTaughtSceneArt IsFlowMoodScoreEchoesBleedingInterconnectedWriting MusicRise And FallStoryline Author:Charles de Lint
“A lot of novelists start late-Conrad, Pirandello, even Mark Twain. When you're young, chess is all right, and music and poetry. But novel-writing is something else. It has to be learned, but it can't be taught. This bunkum and stinkum of college creative writing courses! The academics don't know that the only thing you can do for someone who wants to write is to buy him a typewriter.” KnowsWantWritingYoungCoursesCan DoNovelCreativeTaughtCollegeLateMarkChessNovelistsCreative WritingTypewritersNovel Writing Author:James M. Cain
“Poems are taught as though the poet has put a secret key in his words and it is the reader's job to find it. Poems are not mystery novels.” JobsPoetrySecretNovelMysteryTaughtPoetKeysReaderMystery Novels Book:Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within Source: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
“I taught elementary school and painted apartments for ten years. Now I write full-time and never have to change a thing I write. Every book comes to me in a flash of inspiration and takes me about two seconds to finish. The longer books, like the Time Warp Trio novels, take a little longer to write - more like four seconds.” WritingYearsLittlesTwoBookInspirationSchoolNovelFourTaughtTenTake MeSecondsFlashApartmentElementary SchoolWarpTrios Author:Jon Scieszka
“Seriously, I think what all the puzzling over parenthood I had to do to write [a novel] ROOM taught me is that children can thrive in a remarkable range of situations.” ThinkingWritingChildrenRoomsSituationNovelTaughtRangeThriveRemarkableParenthoodPuzzling Author:Emma Donoghue
“I think there's a real connection between acting and writing novels because the way I write characters has a little bit to do with the method acting that I was taught in high school and college.” ThinkingWayWritingLittlesRealCharacterSchoolBitsActingNovelTaughtCollegeLittle BitHigh SchoolConnectionsMethodMethod ActingReal Connection Author:Jeffrey Eugenides
“Muse, time has taught me that all metaphysical systems, even historical facts given as truths, are hardly that, so I amuse myself with more agreeable lies; I no longer read anything but novels.” FactsLyingGivenNovelTaughtHistoricalMuseMetaphysicalHistorical Facts Author:Mary Wortley Montagu
“The lessons learned in journalism also apply. Writing for NPR has taught me to cut a piece in half and then in half again - without losing the essence. Apply that to the swollen prose of a bulky novel and you might reveal a beautiful work.” WritingMightBeautifulHalfNovelPiecesCuttingTaughtLessonsLosingEssenceJournalismProseSwollenLesson LearnedNpr Author:Julianna Baggott
“Sometime during the 1990s, when I was teaching philosophy at UCSD, my friend, colleague, and music teacher, Carol Plantamura, discussed the possibility of teaching a course together looking at ways in which various literary works (plays, stories, novels) had been treated as operas, and how different themes emerged in the opera and in its original. One of the pairings we planned to use was Mann's great novella and Britten's opera. Unfortunately, the course was never taught, but the idea remained with me.” WayIdeasDifferentPhilosophyPlayStoriesUseTogetherCoursesNovelTeacherTeachingPossibilityTaughtMy FriendsOriginalsVariousTreatedThemeOperaColleaguesCarolsLiterary WorksMusic TeacherWork Play Author:Philip Kitcher