Southerners love a good tale. They are born reciters, great memory retainers, diary keepers, letter exchangers . . . great talkers.
Eudora WeltyRead
Writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer's own life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing allows a writer to understand the connections between events in their life.
Eudora Welty emphasizes how the act of writing can serve as a personal exploration of life's experiences, revealing the cause-and-effect relationships that shape our narratives. Through storytelling, writers not only share their own truths but also gain insight into their past, enabling a form of self-discovery that enriches both their art and their understanding of the human experience.
Themes
WritingStorytellingSelf-DiscoveryExperienceArt
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, this quote can inspire participants to reflect on their life experiences as material for their stories.
More from Eudora Welty
All quotes →A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.
Eudora WeltyRead
For the source of the short story is usually lyrical. And all writers speak from, and speak to, emotions eternally the same in all of us: love, pity, terror do not show favorites or leave any of us out.
Eudora WeltyRead
The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.
Eudora WeltyRead
The first act of insight is throw away the labels. In fiction, while we do not necessarily write about ourselves, we write out of ourselves, using ourselves; what we learn from, what we are sensitive to, what we feel strongly about--these become our characters and go to make our plots. Characters in fiction are conceived from within, and they have, accordingly, their own interior life; they are individuals every time.
Eudora WeltyRead
Each day the storm clouds were opening like great purple flowers and pouring out their dark thunder. Each nightfall, the storm was laid down on their houses like a burden the day had carried.
Eudora WeltyRead
Similar quotes
I have always wished I could learn to be a potter. I love collecting ceramics; it would be so fulfilling to create something lovely.
Julie AndrewsRead
There is an angel imprisoned in it and I must set it free.
MichelangeloRead
My work is about seeing - seeing things like they haven't been seen before.
Robert MapplethorpeRead
An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.
Charles BukowskiRead
People hide behind the word aesthetic. They say, ‘Well, it’s just that designer’s aesthetic.’ But when you see 18 seasons in a row and not one single model outside a certain skin color…? There are people in the industry who are advocates, who support diversity. And there are people who do not. I don’t get it. Beauty is universal. These doors have to open.
Joan SmallsRead
The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man's soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That's what musicians are.
Ludwig Van BeethovenRead