The idea of some people being less than people is poison to any society and needs to be named as such in order to halt its spread before it turns the soul of a society septic.
Richard FlanaganRead
I never know what I am writing. The moment you know what you're writing, you're writing nothing worth reading.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the spontaneity and unpredictability of creative writing.
Richard Flanagan suggests that true creativity comes from a place of uncertainty and exploration. When a writer is overly conscious of their direction or meaning, the work loses its authenticity and depth, becoming mere mechanical expression rather than a genuine exploration of ideas and feelings. It's about trusting the process and allowing creativity to flow without constraints.
Themes
CreativityWritingAuthenticityExplorationProcess
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop where participants might feel pressure to conform, this quote can encourage them to embrace their uniqueness.
More from Richard Flanagan
All quotes βMy father was a Japanese prisoner of war, a survivor of the Thai-Burma Death Railway, built by a quarter of a million slave labourers in 1943. Between 100,000 and 200,000 died.
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If 30 Australians drowned in Sydney Harbour, it would be a national tragedy. But when 30 or more refugees drown off the Australian coast, it is a political question.
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Is it easier for a man to live his life again as a fish, than to accept the wonder of being human? So alone, so frightened, so wanting for what we are afraid to give tongue to.
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I do not share the pessimism of the age about the novel. They are one of our greatest spiritual, aesthetic and intellectual inventions. As a species it is story that distinguishes us, and one of the supreme expressions of story is the novel. Novels are not content. Nor are they are a mirror to life or an explanation of life or a guide to life. Novels are life, or they are nothing.
Richard FlanaganRead
After writing a novel, what is there to say? If a novelist could say it in a maxim, they wouldn't need 120,000 words, several years and sundry characters, plots and subplots, and so on. I'd much rather listen always.
Richard FlanaganRead
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