Quote of the Day

As writers, we each strive for perfection.

-- Tom Grimes, Mentor, p. 207

Quote of the Day

My psychiatrist claims that whenever I'm not writing I don't know who I am.  But I know exactly who I am.  I'm a writer, and despite my failures, rejections, and minor successes I've never questioned my longing to be a great writer.  Now, I've nearly run out of time and I may never become one.  Yet all along I've known so deeply who I am that, until now, I've been ashamed to admit it, even to myself.

-- Tom Grimes, Mentor, p. 206

Quote of the Day

But for me writing is a necessity.  I exist in sentences.  I forget my sense of failure.  I forget time.  I forget that I'm aging.  I forget that one day I'll die.  Revising sentences is an act of hope, and connecting with a reader is the only leap of faith I'll ever take.

-- Tom Grimes, Mentor, p. 132

Quote of the Day

... by choosing to define myself exclusively as a literary writer I've chosen a profession and a life that promise to humble me.

-- Tom Grimes, Mentor, p. 132

Quote of the Day

Deepening our relationship, though, meant I had a greater chance of being rejected by him if I let him down in any way.  I couldn't admit this outright, but I couldn't conceal my anxiety, either.  I'm not good at that.  This is why I write.  It's my way of controlling my world and my emotions.  I focus on sentences.  For several hours a day, nothing else matters.  I live inside language.  And while I'm often frustrated by writing's difficulty, I'm also at peace.

-- Tom Grimes, Mentor, p. 33

Quote of the Day

True, elation sometimes makes its way from a writer's fingertips to his or her heart and, for a moment, the writer believes that he or she has fashioned a chain of perfectly conjoined words.  But the feeling recedes.  Then the sublime seems trite, the harmonious dissonant, and perfection imperfect.

-- Tom Grimes, Mentor, p. 213

Quote of the Day

Writing's daily difficulties humble a writer; few writers earn a living from their work; fewer still receive accolades; and, at best, two dozen a century are remembered.  So what compels us to do it: a naive but persistent hope for transcendence through art?

-- Tom Grimes, Mentor, p. 213

Quote of the Day

Every writer has obsessions.

-- Tom Grimes, Mentor, p. 70