“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.” ThinkingWritingLongBookDreamRealizingSleepKnowingGrowingAnxietyWake UpInventionNervousEtcNervesPerpetualNot KnowingStemStrainFinishing Book:Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac, 1947-1954 Source: Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac, 1947-1954
“But the thing that stands eternally in the way of really good writing is always one: the virtual impossibility of lifting to the imagination those things which lie under the direct scrutiny of the senses, close to the nose. It is this difficulty that sets a value upon all works of art and makes them a necessity. The senses witnessing what is immediately before them in detail see a finality which they cling to in despair, not knowing which way to turn. Thus this so-called natural or scientific array becomes fixed, the walking devil of modern life.” WayWritingArtLyingValuesTurnsImaginationNaturalKnowingModernWalkingDespairDevilDirectDifficultyDetailsSensesNosesFixedWorks Of ArtNot KnowingImpossibilityModern LifeLiftingScrutinyGood WritingFinality Book:Kora in Hell: Improvisations Source: Kora in Hell: Improvisations
“The writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do... Writing is a process of dealing with not-knowing, a forcing of what and how.” KnowsWritingDoeProcessKnowingTasksNot KnowingEmbarking Author:Donald Barthelme