Monday, March 29, 2010

Somerset Maugham:

I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Rob Bell:

Do you know that feeling in class when somebody raises his hand and says, "I don't get it," and you feel so relieved that you aren't the only one who isn't getting it? That's what great artists do. This is what great people do. They ask it. They say it. They express it. They put in words what so many others are thinking and feeling and wondering. They affirm that you aren't the only one having this experience.

Drops Like Stars, p. 46-47

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Hugh MacLeod:

The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 7

Monday, March 22, 2010

Paul Valery:

Each newcomer feels obliged to do something else, forgetting that if he himself is somebody he will necessarily do that something else.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Frederick Douglass:

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

Re: the emancipation of West India, August 4, 1857

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Mary Pipher:

Personal essays allow us to struggle on paper with our deepest questions, and then to share that struggle with others.

Writing to Change the World, p. 213

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Mary Karr:

That's why I pray and poetize: to be able to see my brothers and sisters despite my own (often petty) agonies, to partake of the majesty that's every sinner's birthright.

Sinners Welcome, p. 93

Friday, March 5, 2010

Hugh MacLeod:

Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 2

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Richard Hugo:

Scholars look for final truths they will never find. Creative writers concern themselves with possibilities that are always there to the receptive.

The Triggering Town, p. 56

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Steven Pressfield:

Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five. In other words, fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.

The War of Art, p. 14

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Mary Pipher:

Only by facing our own grief fully can we do the work necessary to alleviate the world's grief.

Writing to Change the World, p. 208

Monday, March 1, 2010

Hugh MacLeod:

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 1