You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
No one can call themselves a writer until he or she has written at least fifty stories.
Interpretation
True writers must produce a significant body of work to earn the title.
This quote by David Foster Wallace emphasizes the idea that the label of 'writer' is not simply a title one can assume; it requires demonstrable effort and output. By suggesting that one must write at least fifty stories, Wallace points to the importance of practice, dedication, and accumulation of experiences in the journey to becoming a true writer.
In practice
A writing workshop discussion about what it means to be a writer.
You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
Under fun's new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don't want to see or let anyone else see, and this stuff usually turns out (paradoxically) to be precisely the stuff all writers and readers share and respond to, feel.
Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.
Bliss - a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious - lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like youβve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and itβs like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.
Strange questions are the more interesting ones. Children by and large don't try to trip you up... they want to find out how you do this funny thing that you do... if they've loved a story they love to know how it started.
To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to getting it answered.
The junior high schools and high schools of America have forgotten to teach one of the most important courses of all. Investing.
To look into some aspects of the future, we do not need projections by supercomputers. Much of the next millennium can be seen in how we care for our children today. Tomorrow's world may be influenced by science and technology, but more than anything, it is already taking shape in the bodies and minds of our children.
I think the most important thing we can teach our kids for their long-term health and happiness is how to cook.
Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.
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