The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “writing”

Patti Smith on Listening to the Creative Impulse and the Crucial Difference Between Writing Poetry and Songwriting
Patti Smith on Listening to the Creative Impulse and the Crucial Difference Between Writing Poetry and Songwriting

“In times of strife, we have our imagination, we have our creative impulse, which are things that are more important than material things. They are the things that we should magnify.”

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Elena Ferrante on the Myth of Inspiration, Writing on Demand, and the Central Truth of the Creative Process
Elena Ferrante on the Myth of Inspiration, Writing on Demand, and the Central Truth of the Creative Process

“Words draw out words: one can always write a banal, elegant, heartfelt, amusing coherent page on any subject, low or high, simple or complex, frivolous or fundamental.”

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Explainer, Elucidator, Enchanter: A Gradation of Great Writing
Explainer, Elucidator, Enchanter: A Gradation of Great Writing

A visual taxonomy to illuminate the difference between information, knowledge, and meaning.

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Facing the Blank Page: Celebrated Writers on How to Overcome Creative Block
Facing the Blank Page: Celebrated Writers on How to Overcome Creative Block

Wisdom on artistic paralysis from Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, Lydia Davis, and others.

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The Private Person and the Public Persona: Borges on the Divided Self
The Private Person and the Public Persona: Borges on the Divided Self

A timeless parable of the self-defeating quest for integration.

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Chinua Achebe on How Storytelling Helps Us Survive History’s Rough Patches
Chinua Achebe on How Storytelling Helps Us Survive History’s Rough Patches

“There is no one way to anything.”

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Ursula K. Le Guin on Writing as Falling in Love
Ursula K. Le Guin on Writing as Falling in Love

“I function only by falling in love: with French and France; with the 15th Century; with microbiology, cosmology, sleep research…”

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Rilke on Writing and What It Takes to Be an Artist
Rilke on Writing and What It Takes to Be an Artist

“Go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create.”

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Jennifer Egan on Writing, the Trap of Approval, and the Most Important Discipline in Creative Work
Jennifer Egan on Writing, the Trap of Approval, and the Most Important Discipline in Creative Work

“You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.”

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Cycling as a Cure for Creative Block: A Charming 1926 Case for Why the Bicycle Is the Ideal Vehicle for Writers
Cycling as a Cure for Creative Block: A Charming 1926 Case for Why the Bicycle Is the Ideal Vehicle for Writers

“The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.”

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