Books are not life, only its ashes.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
I could say that all my books were conceived by the time I was twenty, although they were not to be written for another thirty or forty years. But perhaps this is true of most writers—the emotional storage is done very early on.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creative ideas often take years to develop, rooted in experiences from a young age.
This quote by Marguerite Yourcenar reflects on the long gestation period of a writer's ideas and creations. It suggests that the emotional and intellectual groundwork for a writer’s work is often laid in their early years, even if the actual expression of those ideas happens much later. This emphasizes the importance of early experiences in shaping one's creative output and showcases that creativity is not just a product of time spent writing, but also of one's life experiences and emotional growth accumulated over the years.
Themes
CreativityWritingExperienceExpressionEmotions
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, to encourage participants to draw from their life experiences.
More from Marguerite Yourcenar
All quotes →Meditation upon death does not teach one how to die; it does not make the departure more easy, but ease is not what I seek. Beloved boy, so willful and brooding, your sacrifice will have enriched not my life but my death. ... Centuries as yet unborn within the dark womb of time would pass by thousands over that tomb without restoring life to him, but likewise without adding to his death, and without changing the fact that he had been.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
Our true birthplace is that in which we cast for the first time an intelligent eye on ourselves. My first homelands were my books.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
The landscape of my days appears to be composed, like mountainous regions, of varied materials heaped up pell-mell. There I see my nature, itself composite, made up of equal parts of instinct and training. Here and there protrude the granite peaks of the inevitable, but all about is rubble from the landslips of chance.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
When two texts, or two assertions, perhaps two ideas, are in contradiction, be ready to reconcile them rather than cancel one by the other; regard them as two different facets, or two successive stages, of the same reality, a reality convincingly human just because it is too complex.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
Passion such as hers is all consent, asking little in return. I had merely to enter a room where she was to see her face take on that peaceful expression of one who is resting in bed. If I touched her, I had the impression that all the blood in her veins was turning to honey.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
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