We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
The hardest part of writing is not to get the ideas but to remember, why it is important to get them.
Interpretation
The challenge of writing lies in recalling the significance of ideas rather than just generating them.
This quote highlights that while coming up with ideas may be relatively easy for writers, the more challenging aspect is understanding and remembering the underlying reasons behind those ideas. The importance serves as motivation and a guiding force, which can sometimes get lost in the process of creation.
In practice
In a writing workshop, to inspire your peers, you might share this quote to discuss the deeper significance of creativity.
We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Memory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled. Each second was two hundred yards, to be walked, crawled. You couldn't see the next hour, it was so far in the distance. Tomorrow was over the horizon, and would take an entire day to reach.
She was not crying Which surprised me very much But I understand now That she had found places For her melancholy That were behind more masks Than only her eyes
What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.
A few weeks after the worst day, I started writing lots of letters. I don't know why, but it was one of the only things that made my boots lighter.
What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?
"Beauty fades," my father would tell me, "but dumb? Dumb is forever."
There is only one time when it is essential to awaken. That time is now.
We notice that the mind is a restless bird; the more it gets the more it wants, and still remains unsatisfied. The more we indulge our passions the more unbridled they become. Our ancestors, therefore, set a limit to our indulgences. They saw that happiness was largely a mental condition. A man is not necessarily happy because he is rich, or unhappy because he is poor.... Millions will always remain poor.
Fill what is empty, empty what is full, and scratch where it itches.
The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves or have listened only to their neighbors to learn what they ought to do, how they ought to behave, and what the values are they should be living for.
The only thing that kept me going was stories. Stories are hope. They take you out of yourself for a bit, and when you get dropped back in, you're different- you're stronger, you've seen more, you've felt more. Stories are like spiritual currency.
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