Give me hunger, pain and want, Shut me out with shame and failure From your doors of gold and fame, Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger! But leave me a little love.
Carl SandburgRead
Ordering a man to write a poem is like commanding a pregnant woman to give birth to a red-headed child.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creative expression cannot be forced; it comes from within.
Carl Sandburg's quote suggests that poetry and creative expression are organic processes that cannot be easily coerced. Just as a pregnant woman cannot choose the hair color of her child, a poet cannot simply be ordered to create; the act of writing a poem requires inspiration, natural development, and personal resonance.
Themes
CreativityPoetryInspirationArtistic ExpressionFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
During a creative writing workshop where students are encouraged to find their own voice.
More from Carl Sandburg
All quotes βNothing happens... but first a dream.
Carl SandburgRead
Read the dictionary from A to Izzard today. Get a vocabulary. Brush up on your diction. See whether wisdom is just a lot of language.
Carl SandburgRead
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Carl SandburgRead
There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.
Carl SandburgRead
A liar goes in fine clothes, a liar goes in rags, a liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.
Carl SandburgRead
Similar quotes
All fiction, if it's successful, is going to appeal to the emotions. Emotion is really what fiction is all about. That's not to say fiction can't be thoughtful, or present some interesting or provocative ideas to make us think. But if you want to present an intellectual argument, nonfiction is a better tool. You can drive a nail with a shoe but a hammer is a better tool for that. But fiction is about emotional resonance, about making us feel things on a primal and visceral level.
George R. R. MartinRead
My dad would go to work every day and write in a room full of funny people. He enjoyed it. I know great writers who find the process agonising but to me, writing has always been sheer joy.
Joss WhedonRead
Animation is the one type of movie that really does play for the entire audience. Our challenge is to make stories that connect for kids and adults.
John LasseterRead
What my character is or how many jails I have lounged in, or wards or walls or wassails, how many lonely-heart poetry readings I have dodged, is beside the point. A man's soul or lack of it will be evident with what he can carve upon a white sheet of paper.
Charles BukowskiRead
The creative musician ... is ... the radio receiver, not the broadcasting station. His personal discipline is to improve the quality of the components, the transistors, the speakers, the alloys in the receiver itself, but never to concern himself overmuch with putting out the program. The program is there; all he has to do is receive it as far as possible.
Robert FrippRead
That kill the bloom before its time, And blanch, without the owner's crime, The most resplendent hair.
William WordsworthRead