"Story supports hope: it gives courage to fight when needed, laughter when the unexpected happens, and a kind of verbal sanctuary of wisdom to ponder in times of quiet."
Amy E. Spaulding, The Art of Storytelling: Telling Truths through Telling Stories
"There's the rub, for me—I see creative and spiritual possibilities in so much of what others would quickly cast of [...] wherever I go, whatever I look at, there is a part of me, a filter, that discerns whether or not it could be useful for crafting—spiritually oriented crafting."
Maggie Oman Shannon, Crafting Calm: Projects and Practices for Creativity and Contemplation
"Stories were different, though: they came alive in the telling. Without a human voice to read them aloud, or a pair of wide eyes following them by flashlight beneath a blanket, they had no real existence in our world. They were like seeds in the beak of a bird, waiting to fall to earth, or the notes of a song laid out on a sheet, yearning for an instrument to bring their music into being. They lay dormant, hoping for the chance to emerge. Once someone started to read them, they could begin to change. They could take root in the imagination, and transform the reader."
John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things
"Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you'll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit."
Neil Gaiman, Introduction to M is for Magic
"Feeling blue is never an excuse for passing on a chance to feel joy."
Veronique Vienne, The Art of the Moment
"Focus is narrowing on a single topic or task. It is the art of letting go: what you decide not to do is as important as what you are doing."
"Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of the light."
"The power of imagination makes us infinite."
John Muir, "The National Parks and Forest Reservations" Sierra Club Bulletin 1896
“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.”
George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
 |
| via |
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
"If you're unable to cultivate happiness, satisfaction, and love along the way to your goal, what makes you think you'll be able to do it when you're finally there?"
Katherine Sise, Creative Girl: The Ultimate Guide for Turning Talent and Creativity into a Real Career
"Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines--it's hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits."
Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
"We all want to connect with other human beings in such a way that they'll remember us and perhaps share our legacy with others."
Lee Gutkind, You Can't Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction--from Memoir to Literary Journalism and Everything in Between
"Everyday creativity refers to a process which brings together at least one active human mind, and the material or digital world, in the activity of making something which is novel in the context, and is a process which evokes a feeling of joy."
David Gauntlett, Making is Connecting: The social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0
"Mortals. I envy you. You think you can change things. Stop the universe. Undo what was done long before you came along. You are such beautiful creatures."
Beautiful Creatures, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
"Are my words ever actually audible, or do they just echo in my head while people stare at me, waiting? I want to change my punctuation. I long for exclamation marks, but I'm drowning in ellipses."
Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies
"If everything you read is easy, accessible, straightforward and familiar, you're not doing it right. You don't have to like everything you read but it sometimes pays not to give up too soon: some exceptional pleasures take time to understand, to learn to like."
Heather Leach, Everything You need to Know About Creative Writing
"If we do not have a word for something, we cannot imagine it, cannot discuss it, cannot think about it, and some people would even argue that if you can't name something, you can't experience it at all."
Heather Leach, Everything You need to Know About Creative Writing
"Writing is rebellion, a defiance of the order of the universe."
John Rember, MFA in a Box: A Why to Write Book
"That means writers need to be generalists. The more you know about a wide range of subjects, the more material you have to make connections with. The more material you have to work with, the more likely you are to produce fresh, unexpected connections, the kind of connections that make good metaphors."
Carol Bly, Beyond the Writers' Workshop
