Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better.
Edmund WhiteRead
I'm not such a fan of imagination. If you're alive to details, they oftentimes suggest a richer or deeper imaginative line than you would have imagined.
Interpretation
Imagination can be limited, but paying attention to details can inspire even richer creativity.
In this quote, Edmund White suggests that rather than relying solely on one's imagination, one should appreciate the intricacies and details of life that can lead to deeper and more profound creative insights. By observing the world around us with a keen eye, we can find inspiration that surpasses what we might have conceived in our mind alone.
In practice
This quote could be shared in an art class to emphasize the importance of observing details.
Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better.
I've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.
In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.
If bigots oppose gay marriage so vehemently, it must be because marriage is a defining institution for them; gays will never be fully accepted until they can marry and adopt, like anyone else.
When we are young... we often experience things in the present with a nostalgia-in-advance, but we seldom guess what we will truly prize years from now.
I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission.
The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see - every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties.
When I watch a movie, someone's beauty isn't what engages me: it's what's going on internally. And I imagine it's what the audience thinks, too.
I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of a tighrope dancer so that no incompetent would dare step upon it.
First we draw what we see; then we draw what we know; finally we see what we know.
Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about - something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.
More varied than any landscape was the landscape in the sky, with islands of gold and silver, peninsulas of apricot and rose against a background of many shades of turquoise and azure.
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