I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten, - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.
Brenda UelandRead
I want to write about the great and powerful thing that listening is. And how we forget it. And how we don't listen to our children, or those we love. And least of all - which is so important, too - to those we do not love. But we should. Because listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force...When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Listening is a powerful and often overlooked act that fosters connection and creativity.
Brenda Ueland emphasizes the transformative power of listening in her quote, suggesting that it is not just a passive activity but an active force that can nurture our ideas and the people around us. She highlights how important it is to listen not only to those we care about but also to those we may not have much affection for, as this act of understanding can lead to personal growth and deeper connections.
Themes
ListeningCommunicationRelationshipsCreativityGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
During a family gathering, share this quote to encourage everyone to actively listen to each other.
More from Brenda Ueland
All quotes →Creative listeners are those who want you to be recklessly yourself, even at your very worst, even vituperative, bad-tempered. They are laughing and just delighted with any manifestation of yourself, bad or good. For true listeners know that if you are bad-tempered it does not mean that you are always so. They don't love you just when you are nice; they love all of you.
Brenda UelandRead
The only way to write well, so that people believe what we say and are interested or touched by it, is to slough off all pretentiousness and attitudinizing.
Brenda UelandRead
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