I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story.
Interpretation
Writing good sentences sequentially leads to the creation of a compelling story.
This quote by Amy Hempel highlights the fundamental process of storytelling, emphasizing that quality writing is built step by step. Each well-crafted sentence contributes to the overall narrative, suggesting that storytelling is an art that requires patience and dedication to develop over time.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a writing workshop to encourage budding authors.
Then the children went to bed, or at least went upstairs, and the men joined the women for a cigarette on the porch, absently picking ticks engorged like grapes off the sleeping dogs. And when the men kissed the women good night, and their weekend whiskers scratched the women's cheeks, the women did not think shave, they thought stay.
I sleep with a glass of water on the nightstand so I can see by its level if the coastal earth is trembling or if the shaking is still me.
if it's true your life flashes past your eyes before you die, then it is also the truth that your life rushes forth when you are ready to start to truly be alive.
Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.
It's still magic even if you know how it's done.
That's why those tapes we made are going to be so great one day, because they'll tell stories that time has swallowed up or distorted or whatever.
Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.
Someday I'll design a typeface without a K in it, and then let's see the bastards misspell my name.
Art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass.
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