It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Ezra PoundRead
Fundamental accuracy of statement is the ONE sole morality of writing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing should prioritize truthful expression above all else.
Ezra Pound's quote emphasizes that the primary moral obligation of a writer is to ensure that their statements are fundamentally accurate. For Pound, the integrity of writing lies in its authenticity and truthfulness, suggesting that all other considerations, such as style or emotional appeal, should take a backseat to the accuracy of the information being conveyed.
Themes
AccuracyWritingMoralityTruthExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on creative writing, this quote can be used to stress the importance of keeping facts straight.
More from Ezra Pound
All quotes →The ant's a centaur in his dragon world. Pull down thy vanity, it is not man Made courage, or made order, or made grace, Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down. Learn of the green world what can be thy place In scaled invention or true artistry, Pull down thy vanity, Paquin pull down! The green casque has outdone your elegance.
Ezra PoundRead
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever and forever.
Ezra PoundRead
Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use.
Ezra PoundRead
In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
Ezra PoundRead
The modern artist must live by craft and violence. His gods are violent gods. Those artists, so called, whose work does not show this strife, are uninteresting.
Ezra PoundRead
Similar quotes
And before I'd got to the end of the first paragraph, I'd come up slap bang against a fundamental problem that still troubles me today whenever I begin a story, and it's this: where am I telling it from?
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I think the chance of finding beauty is higher if you don't work on it directly. Beauty in architecture is driven by practicality. This is what you learn from studying the old townscapes of the Swiss farmers.
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There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer's time, nothing harder to keep track of. There are moments—moments of sustained creation—when his time is fairly valuable; and there are hours and hours when a writer's time isn't worth the paper he is not writing anything on.
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I think that in an increasingly virtual world, lovingly produced artefacts are at a premium.
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The main thing I love about street photography is that you find the answers you don't see at the fashion shows. You find information for readers so they can visualize themselves.
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Personal style is about a sense of yourself, a sense of what you believe in and wearing what you like.
Ralph LaurenRead