Sometimes, the Internet can feel like a middle-school playground populated by brats in ski masks who name-call and taunt with the fake bravery of the anonymous. But sometimes - thank goodness - it's nicer than real life.
Susan OrleanRead
There's a marvelous sense of mastery that comes with writing a sentence that sounds exactly as you want it to. It's like trying to write a song, making tiny tweaks, reading it out loud, shifting things to make it sound a certain way... Sometimes it feels like digging out of a hole, but sometimes it feels like flying. When it's working and the rhythm's there, it does feel like magic to me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing can evoke a powerful feeling of accomplishment and creativity, akin to creating music.
This quote by Susan Orlean illustrates the deep satisfaction and sense of achievement that can come from the art of writing. It captures the writer's experience of crafting sentences to achieve a desired rhythm and flow, comparing the process to the delicate art of songwriting. The emotional highs and lows associated with this creative endeavor demonstrate the intense connection between a writer and their words, where success can feel exhilarating and magical.
Themes
WritingCreativityMasteryExpressionArt
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote to inspire students in a creative writing class.
More from Susan Orlean
All quotes →I really believed that anything at all was worth writing about if you cared about it enough, and that the best and only necessary justification for writing any particular story was that I cared about it.
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You have to appreciate the spiritual component of having an opportunity to do something as wondrous as writing. You should be practical and smart and you should have a good agent and you should work really, really hard. But you should also be filled with awe and gratitude about this amazing way to be in the world.
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I suppose I do have one embarrassing passion- I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately.
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I remember three- and four-week-long snow days, and drifts so deep a small child, namely me, could get lost in them. No such winter exists in the record, but that's how Ohio winters seemed to me when I was little - silent, silver, endless, and dreamy.
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I never thought very many people in the world were very much like John Laroche, but I realized more and more that he was only an extreme, not an aberration - that most people in some way or another do strive for something exceptional, something to pursue, even at their peril, rather than abide an ordinary life.
Susan OrleanRead
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