Reading is rapture (or if it isn't, I put the book down meaning to go on with it later, and escape out the side door).
William MaxwellRead
If you turn the imagination loose like a hunting dog, it will often return with the bird in its mouth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Imagination, when given freedom, can lead to valuable discoveries and insights.
This quote emphasizes the power of imagination and creativity, suggesting that when we allow our minds to roam freely, we can uncover ideas and solutions that might have otherwise remained hidden. Just as a hunting dog retrieves what is needed, a liberated imagination can bring forth meaningful outcomes and inspirations.
Themes
ImaginationCreativityInspirationDiscoveryFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about creativity, one might say, 'As William Maxwell once noted, if you turn the imagination loose like a hunting dog, it will often return with the bird in its mouth.'
More from William Maxwell
All quotes →Sometimes she goes out to work as a practical nurse, and comes home and sits by the kitchen table soaking her feet in a pan of hot water and Epsom salts. When she gets into bed and the springs creak under her weight, she groans with the pleasure of lying stretched out on an object that understands her so well.
William MaxwellRead
The view after seventy is breathtaking. What is lacking is someone, anyone, of the older generation to whom you can turn when you want to satisfy your curiosity about some detail of the landscape of the past. There is no longer any older generation. You have become it, while your mind was mostly on other matters
William MaxwellRead
I had inadvertently walked through a door that I shouldn’t have gone through and couldn’t get back to the place I hadn’t meant to leave.
William MaxwellRead
A writer is a reader who is moved to emulation.
William MaxwellRead
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