Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of authenticity in creative expression.
Barbara Kingsolver's quote urges individuals to focus on their own voice and thoughts instead of conforming to external expectations. It highlights the significance of introspection and personal truth in the creative process, asserting that true artistry comes from within rather than from the desire to please others.
Themes
AuthenticityCreativitySelf-ExpressionIndividualityWriting
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a creative writing workshop to encourage participants to trust their unique voices.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes →Children 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.
Barbara KingsolverRead
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.
Barbara KingsolverRead
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