“All I write about is what's happened to me and to people I know, and the better I know them, the more likely they are to be written about.” PeopleKnowsWritingLiteratureWrittenHappened Author:Norman MacCaig
“The best thing that ever happened to me is that nothing happened in writing. I ended up working for engineering companies, and that's where I found my material, in the everyday struggle between capitalism and grace. Being broke and tired, you don't come home your best self.” WritingSelfHomeFoundCompanyStruggleGraceHappenedMaterialsCapitalismTiredEverydayThings HappenBrokeBest ThingsComing HomeEngineeringBest SelfBeing BrokeBest Thing That Ever Happened To Me Author:George Saunders
“It appeared that after first contemplating a book on some subject, and after giving serious preliminary attention to it, I needed a period of subconscious incubation which could not be hurried and was if anything impeded by deliberate thinking.... Having, by a time of very intense concentration, planted the problem in my subconsciousness, it would germinate underground until, suddenly, the solution emerged with a blinding clarity, so that it only remained to write down what happened as if in a revelation.” IfsThinkingGivingWritingFirstsBookProblemAttentionHappenedSubjectsSeriousNeededPeriodsSolutionsIntenseClarityRevelationsConcentrationContemplatingSubconsciousDeliberateIncubation Author:Bertrand Russell
“As a novelist, I mined my history, my family and my memory, but in a very specific way. Writing fiction, I never made use of experiences immediately as they happened. I needed to let things fester in my memory, mature and transmogrify into something meaningful.” WayWritingMadeUseMemoriesFictionHappenedNeededMy FamilyMeaningfulNovelistsMatureWriting Fiction Author:Ayelet Waldman
“To me, writing is remembering something funny that happened, or maybe something I said seven years ago.” WritingYearsSaidRememberHappenedYears AgoSevenSeven Years Author:Matthew Perry
“No matter what difficulty you are facing, it is coming from Divine Light to bring you to a higher place within. Write down every conceivable reason that this situation can contribute towards your growth. Write down every way this experience can possibly set the stage for serving to uplift others. When you are complete, and have come to the other side of this experience, you will then know 'why' it happened.” KnowsWayWritingMatterReasonLightSidesGrowthSituationHappenedStageDivineHigherDifficultyNo Matter WhatUpliftingServingDivine Light Author:Barbara Rose
“It's hard if you're just touring constantly. It's like, "What am I going to write about? I'm in the van, I'm playing another show..." I'm still writing about heartbreak that happened years ago. I don't see the point of writing and putting out another record until I can do something else.” IfsWritingYearsStillsI CanHardShowsCan DoRecordsHappenedYears AgoVansTouringCan Do Something Author:Sharon Van Etten
“Interest in reading memoirs is universal. What has happened is that people are writing about more and more outrageous things. Our threshold for weirdness - you can't have just a normal childhood - has gone way up.” PeopleWayWritingReadingInterestGoneHappenedChildhoodNormalUniversalMemoirOutrageousThresholdWeirdness Author:Sara Nelson
“I've always felt that my relationship to the United States is analogous to a marriage. I love this country. I hate it. I get angry at it. I feel close to it. I'm charmed by it. I'm repelled by it. And it's a marriage that's gone on for let's say at least 50 years of my writing life, and in the course of that, what's happened? It's gotten worse. It's not what it used to be.” FeelsWritingYearsCountryStatesAmericaUsedHateCoursesFeltUnitedUnited StatesGoneHappenedI HateAngryUsed To BeWriting LifeCharmed Author:Norman Mailer