#writ

The poet or the revolutionary is there to articulate the necessity, but until the people themselves apprehend it, nothing can happen ... Perhaps it can't be done without the poet, but it certainly can't be done without the people. The poet and the people get on generally very badly, and yet they need each other. The poet knows it sooner than the people do. The people usually know it after the poet is dead; but that's all right. The point is to get your work done, and your work is to change the world. ↗

— James Baldwin

#poets #writing #change

I understand the worries of many - not only here in this auditorium -, and some have already written to me to say that technical progress has lowered the threshold that stops people from helping themselves to protected works without the slightest embarrassment. ↗

— Johannes Rau

#auditorium #embarrassment #helping #here #i

Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say. ~Sharon O'Brien ↗

— Sharon O'Brien

#writing #writing-from-the-heart #writing-process #love

That day, that day when I can gaze at the sea--both of us calm--and I, trusting, having poured my whole heart into my Life Work....when death--black waves!--no longer courts me and I can smile, constantly, at everything because, my bones, there will be so little of myself left to give it. ↗

— Juan Ramón Jiménez

#life-work #nature-writing #poetry #death

Guy struck a jangling chord on the keyboards and then another. 'You know,' he announced, sitting back and crossing his arms. 'We need some new material. We’ve got to write some new songs.' 'Like what?' He shrugged. 'I don’t know. Throw out some ideas.' 'Love! Death! Existential struggle!' Emily intoned dramatically, rattling out a drumroll. 'Agriculture! ↗

— Francine Pascal

#sweet-valley #death

The short story, I should point out, is perforce a labor of love in today's literary world; there's precious little economic incentive to write one... ↗

— Lawrence Block

#short-stories #short-story #writers #writing #love

If you're going to fall out of love with public approval, something interesting will happen: people will be deeply attracted to your work. ↗

— Jeff Goins

#writing #love

Without imagination, there would be no creativity. Without creativity, there would be nothing. ↗

— Aneta Cruz

#life #reading #writing #imagination

Don't always be appraising yourself, wondering if you are better or worse than other writers. "I will not Reason and Compare," said Blake; "my business is to Create." Besides, since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of Time, you are incomparable. ↗

— Brenda Ueland

#creativity #writing #art

I'm not so presumptuous to feel that they're gonna get it right away, get exactly what I have in mind. I hope that they'll enjoy looking at it at any rate, whatever it is. And that's why I started writing stories on my work. ↗

— Faith Ringgold

#away #enjoy #exactly #feel #get