This is for writers yet to be published who think the uphill climb will never end. Keep believing. This is also for published writers grown jaded by the process. Remember how lucky you are.
Terry BrooksRead
Fiction writing is a twenty-four-hou r-a-day occupation. You never leave your work behind. It is always with you, and to some extent, you are always thinking about it. You don't take your work home; your work never leaves home. It lives inside you. It resides and grows and comes alive in your mind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fiction writing is an immersive pursuit that constantly occupies the writer's mind.
This quote emphasizes the all-consuming nature of fiction writing, suggesting that it is not just a job or task to complete, but a deep-seated passion and way of life. The writer carries their work with them at all times, indicating that creativity is an ongoing, internal process that continuously evolves within their mind, making writing a personal and persistent endeavor.
Themes
FictionWritingOccupationCreativityImagination
In practice
Example use cases
During a writer's workshop, I shared the quote to illustrate the dedication required in fiction writing.
More from Terry Brooks
All quotes →I cannot imagine life without books any more than I can imagine life without breathing.
Terry BrooksRead
The muse whispers to you when she chooses, and you can't tell her to come back later, because you quickly learn in this business that she might not come back at all.
Terry BrooksRead
After all, you put a lot into creating a universe and everything that goes with it, and it seems a shame to use it only once.
Terry BrooksRead
If you don't think there is magic in writing, you probably won't write anything magical.
Terry BrooksRead
Writing fantasy lets me imagine a great deal more than, say, writing about alligators, and lets me write about places more distant than Florida, but I can tell you things about Florida and alligators, let you make the connection all on your own.
Terry BrooksRead
Similar quotes
The artist has a special task and duty... reminding people of their humanity and the promise of their creativity.
Lewis MumfordRead
An artist cannot get along without a public; and when the public is absent, what does he do? He invents it, and turning his back on his age, he looks toward the future for what the present denies.
Andre GideRead
There are ways in which art can have a longer reach than politics.
Ian McewanRead
It is perhaps both a blessing and a curse that fictional worlds spring into my mind nearly fully formed and it takes quite a while to sift through everything to find the story.
Erin MorgensternRead
I realized at a young age that sequence in an album is almost as important as the songs that are on the album.
Dr. DreRead
When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I try to do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture.
John ConstableRead