Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
You always need that spark of imagination. Sometimes I'm midway through a book before it happens. However, I don't wait for the muse to descend, I sit down every day and I work when I'm not delivering lambs on the farm.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Imagination is essential for creativity, and it requires consistent effort to bring ideas to life.
This quote emphasizes the importance of imagination in the creative process while also highlighting the need for discipline and hard work. Barbara Kingsolver suggests that inspiration does not come solely from a moment of creativity; rather, it is achieved through a diligent daily practice, even amidst other responsibilities.
Themes
ImaginationCreativityDisciplineHard WorkInspiration
In practice
Example use cases
During a creative writing workshop, I shared this quote to emphasize the importance of daily writing practices.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes βChildren can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
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I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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