Category: Quotes

Composers and Writers

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People closest to me know that a) I’m not musical, and b) I really wish I were musical. But that doesn’t mean I can’t take inspiration from famous composers! Here’s a collection of great quotes from composers about making art. A few of my favorites:

“To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist.”–Robert Schumann

I love this idea and this image. I feel this connects especially well to YA, which is so often about first encounters with despair and grief and pain, but ultimately also hope and love.

“The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.”–Benjamin Britten

Okay, everyone’s process and schedule is different. Some people work late into the night, and others get up super early in the morning to get work done. But a) I love sleep, and b) for me, lots of writing happens when I make myself sit down and work, not when inspiration suddenly strikes. The “feverish writing all night” image is kind of romantic, but I think it neglects the work that writers put in day-to-day.

“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.”–Johannes Brahms

In a similar vein, I love this focus on craftsmanship. You can have the best idea in the world, but it takes work and craft and thought to bring it to life on the page.

Click through for more composer quotes.

(image: crazybobbles)

Loving Writing When It’s Hard

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The last few weeks have been stressful and busy, and the next few weeks are going to be much the same. Which means I feel like:

Even things I enjoy, like writing, feel like a chore:

I recently came across this quote from Susan Orlean on writing, which seems particularly helpful when I’m stressed and when the writing is hard:

“You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.”

It’s easy to love writing when the words are flowing and you have the time to focus on your craft. But sometimes you have to remind yourself that you love it and that it’s worth it, even if you only get a few words down at a time.

So if you’re having a rough time and feel like the words aren’t flowing, try to remind yourself that you love writing, even when it’s hard and you feel like you can’t get anything on paper. Loving writing when it’s hard is when you’re at your most writerly.

Quote of the Day

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I am not interested in the ephemeral…I am interested in those things that repeat and repeat and repeat in the lives of the millions.–Thornton Wilder, The New York Times (6 November 1961)

As you may have gathered, Thornton Wilder is a new favorite writer. I recently saw a gorgeous production of Our Town (and spent the evening crying about how beautiful and fleeting life is). Walt gave me a copy of the play for Christmas and I finished reading it over the weekend–so good.

Like in the quote above, Our Town deals with the very ordinary daily activities that are deeply meaningful and connect humans across time. I feel like this is something I want to keep in mind in my own writing–what is lasting? What is eternal? What touches all of us at our most basic human level?

Quote of the Day

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“By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times. I am suspicious of both facility and speed. Good writing is essentially rewriting. I am positive of this.”—Roald Dahl

I’m glad to hear Dahl, whose works feel so perfect, talk about how essential revision is. It can be frustrating when your critique group or editor says “This is great, but I’m confused about this and I need to see more of this and what about this?” It can feel like revision is a neverending process. You just want to be done already! But that’s what most of writing is. You start with the rough information, and slowly your characters and plots and themes start to come together.

I started work on Queen of the Air back in 2008 or so, and finished the first draft in 2009. The revision process has ebbed and flowed since then, but I was never “done.” And I’m still revising and editing. From talking to author friends, it seems like revising and editing happens almost until the final copy of a book is available in libraries and bookstores. But that doesn’t mean it’s all banging your head against the wall–it’s crafting and refining and making your story as awesome and compelling as it can be.

Click through for more quotes about revision.

(via Flavorwire)

True Friends and Good Writers

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Charlotte’s Web turns 60 this year, and even though I absolutely hate spiders, the ending gets me a little teary. Apparently E.B. White felt the same:

‘”He, of course, as anyone does doing an audio book, had to do several takes for various things, just to get it right,’ [author Michael] Sims says. ‘But every time, he broke down when he got to Charlotte’s death. And he would do it, and it would mess up. … He took 17 takes to get through Charlotte’s death without his voice cracking or beginning to cry.'”

And just in case you’re not already tearing up, here’s my favorite quote from the book:

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

I’ll just be over here with a box of tissues, thank you.

Quote of the Day

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“I was taken out to lunch and offered, with great ceremony, the opportunity to be an editor in the adult department? The implication, of course, was that since I had learned to publish books for children with considerable success perhaps I was now ready to move along (or up) to the adult field. I almost pushed the luncheon table into the lap of the pompous gentleman opposite me and then explained kindly that publishing children’s book was what I did, that I couldn’t possibly be interested in books for dead dull finished adults, and thank you very much but I had to get back to my desk to publish some more good books for bad children.”–Ursula Nordstrom

Currently reading Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom by Leonard S. Marcus and loving it. Nordstrom worked closely with authors and illustrators like E.B. White, Maurice Sendak, and Shel Silverstein. Pretty awesome career, right? And I love her commitment to children’s literature as a whole, as indicated in the quote above.

(image via Charlotte Zolotow)

Quote of the Day

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In the great storytelling there is usually an indication of the resolution in the first sentence.–Madeleine L’Engle

I came across this quote in Madeleine L’Engle Herself: Reflections on A Writing Life. She goes on to talk about examples from Hemingway and Chekov, but even without knowledge of those stories, this quote is really intriguing. You don’t tend to think about the first line resolving anything. But I like the suggestion that the beginning of the story has to connect with the end of the story. The parts of a narrative don’t exist in a vacuum.

Definitely going back to my first sentence and thinking about how to reflects the rest of the story.