I think a lot of writers spend years just getting up the courage to write because it seems like such a fantasy of a profession. My dad saved me all that time by making me think, 'Oh, anyone can be a writer. It's like being a firefighter or a lawyer.'
Interpretation
The quote reflects on how encouragement can simplify the pursuit of becoming a writer.
B. J. Novak discusses how the perception of writing as a lofty and unattainable goal can deter aspiring writers. However, his father's perspective—that writing is as accessible as other professions—empowered him to pursue his passion without unnecessary fear. This insight highlights the importance of encouragement and the belief that creative professions are within reach for anyone.
In practice
A motivational speech encouraging students to pursue writing as a career.
Do not believe a thing because you have read about it in a book. Do not believe a thing because another man has said it was true. Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition. Find out the truth for yourself. Reason it out. That is realization.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
You can be a decent critic if you know about food, but to be a really good one, you need to know about life.
Every idea occurs while you are working. If you are sitting around waiting for inspiration, you could sit there forever.
My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life.
Better to operate with detachment, then; better to have a way but infuse it with a little humor; best, to have no way at all but to have instead the wit constantly to make one's way anew from the materials at hand.
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