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Inspiring quotes from writers

JamesmccreetJamesmccreet
edited June 2014 in Writing
When asked whether we should write for the reader's heart or his head, Vladimir Nabokov replied that we should write for the spine. The vertebral shiver that good writing creates is why we read.

Comments

  • Phots MollPhots Moll
    I like that.
  • ClaudiaClaudia
    Hi and welcome, Jamesmccreet. Yes, I like that quote too!
  • LizyLizy
    It's a good quote but doesn't cover all eventualities. What about the times we read for comfort, or relaxation, or for a laugh?

    Vertebral shovers have their place, but a constant one would be too much.
  • Phots MollPhots Moll
    My spine shivers when I laugh, Lizy.
  • LizLiz
    *wonders if PM has an unstable spine*

    Some people feel good writing in other places.

    The writing that has given me the most of those shivers, or stomach lurches, or whatever, is haiku, weirdly.
  • BillBill
    Involuntary
    spine quivering when reading
    impromptu Haiku
  • LizLiz
    I did a haiku course with haiku master some time ago, Bill, along with a group of other children's poets. I was fed up with seeing non-haiku with the title 'haiku' in children's poetry books. Haiku do not have a title. There also about a million other things they do have to have, and a million things that shouldn't be there - the opinion of the the poet being the main thing which really irritates me. That tingle is virtually always a result i think of a real haiku. Most of us immediately gave up trying to write them!

    I like these quotes, James.

    It takes less time to learn how to write nobly
    than how to write lightly and straightforwardly.

    FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

    If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

    ELMORE LEONARD


    Be obscure clearly.

    E. B. WHITE
  • BillBill
    '... things they do have to have, and a million things that shouldn't be there...'

    Yes, I know, Liz. It was just a relevant thought levered into the form with a crow bar



    ;))
  • LizyLizy
    Liz - I like all three of your quotes.

    As for haiku - I've tried the form a couple of times, but that was before I heard the million rules.
    After that I stopped trying - for me, if I have to force it I can't write poetry.
  • LizLiz
    Hehe Bill! So many haiku about crows...

    It gets easier once you sort of 'get' it, Liz, but it is hard, I think the hardest thing to write.

    I just read them now! i can only write them when in the company of other haiku writers on a rengku walk or something, when it seems to be easier.
  • LizLiz
    Liz - I like all three of your quotes.
    Those are the three I remember because I believe in them and try to write by them! Particularly the 'be obscure clearly'. I think writing is about communication.
  • SmaugSmaug
    Each time I start a new notebook, the first thing to go in is -

    "A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom" - Robert Frost

    to remind me what I'm aiming for!
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