Writing for children is bloody difficult; books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts, and they should therefore be accorded the same respect.
Mark HaddonRead
As to the number of novels I've abandoned... I shudder to think. I have thrown away five completed novels, and that's a gruesome enough figure. But not necessarily a waste of effort.
Interpretation
Abandoning creative work can be painful, but it is not always wasted effort.
This quote reflects on the author's experiences with writing, emphasizing that while it is disheartening to discard completed novels, the effort expended in the creative process should not be viewed as futile. Instead, every attempt contributes to personal growth and skill development, even if the end product is not utilized.
In practice
In a writing workshop discussing the importance of perseverance in creative endeavors.
Writing for children is bloody difficult; books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts, and they should therefore be accorded the same respect.
At twenty life was like wrestling an octopus. Every moment mattered. At thirty it was a walk in the country. Most of the time your mind was somewhere else. By the time you got to seventy, it was probably like watching snooker on the telly.
And Father said, "Christopher, do you understand that I love you?" And I said "Yes," because loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth, and Father looks after me when I get into trouble, like coming to the police station, and he looks after me by cooking meals for me, and he always tells me the truth, which means that he loves me.
From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.
And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery…and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.
At 20, 25, 30, we begin to realise that the possibilities of escape are getting fewer. We have jobs, children, partners, debts. This is the part of us to which literary fiction speaks.
I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.
Let my name perish, -- the poetry is good poetry and the music is good music,_x000D_ and beauty dieth not, and the heart that needs it will find it.
When a documentary filmmaker, working in the style that I do, suggests that there has been a shooting ratio of 40 hours to every one hour of finished film, that doesn't mean that the other 39 are bad.
But now, with the last two years of touring and being on the road, I've learned that a live show should never sound like a record; a record should sound like a live show.
The meaning of quality in photography's best pictures lies written in the language of vision. That language is learned by chance, not system.
Poetry is not only a set of words which are chosen to relate to each other; it is something which goes much further than that to provide a glimpse of our vision of the world.
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