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Monday, February 18, 2013

Quote Worthy or Worthy Quotes

There are post-it notes on my desktop, tack board, calendar, monitor, and in my day minder. Many of them are lists of things to do and not forget, which I throw away with relish when completed. But the ones with the curled edges, that stay and stay, are the quotes that touched me.

"No one else has your unique voice. Cultivate it." (good advice for a writer, eh?)
"Write the story for yourself. Your story. Not for others."
"The imagination is the highest kite you can fly." ~Lauren Bacall 
"Surrender to the work. No agenda. Discover the story. Be receptive. Be willing to fail. Cool & detached." (see a theme, here? I have to remind myself to let the muse run with it...)

I was talking to my son the other day, who is an adult and a savvy business man. He said, "Mom, there's a difference between goal and dream." That's probably not verbatim but it's close. He's becoming more pragmatic as he ages, and frankly I think I may be more of a dreamer. What came to mind when he said that was Mark Twain's quote, "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind...it doesn't matter."

Nietche said "Be who you are."

I used to have a huge file of quotes and funny quips, but I don't know what I've done with it. (Must be time to clean my office. <sigh>) Whenever the muse was MIA I'd pop open that folder and pick out something and USUALLY it resonated with me and got me thinking and words began for form. Quotes and poetry are a good way to explore free writing, which is  a great tool when you're blocked or just getting started with a project.

"Well behaved women rarely make history."~Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (one of my favorites that inspire some of the feisty women characters in my books)

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise to the writer, no surprise to the reader."~Robert Frost (definitely a good thing for writers to remember)

What quotes inspire or motivate you?

12 comments:

Jacqueline Seewald said...

Napoleon is often quoted because he said many clever things. Here's one I find heartening:

"Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools."

I think of that when writer's block occurs.

bdtharp said...

Hi Jackie. That's a good quote. Thank you for sharing!

Susan Oleksiw said...

I too love quotes about writers and writing. I occasionally read a page of Bartlett's or another collection, just for fun. Here's one.

"Thought flies and words go on foot. Therein lies all the drama of a writer." Julien Green (1943)

Thanks for the fun post.

Cynthia Green said...

I collect quotes in an old blue notebook with cats playing on the front.

My favorite quote is by Eleanor Roosevelt who said: 'You must do the thing you think you cannot do.'

I have called on this motto throughout my life whenever I face an arduous task or something important that I don't want to do.

Irene Bennett Brown said...

I have a quote from Robert Fontaine that has inspired my writing career from day one. He said, "To be a writer is to reach, however awkwardly, for the stars, and move, however haltingly, in that direction."

Mary Fremont Schoenecker said...

My Author Expressions blog on Quotations in November named some from GOODREADS "Quote of the day'pg., but I like your remembrance of The Robert Frost one best.
Mary F. Schoenecker

Bonnie Tharp said...

These are all great quotes! Thank you for sharing. I am definitely going to have to find my quote file. I had some good ones in it.
-BD

Karen Cioffi said...

I too have a folder on my computer with hundreds of quotes. As I find good ones I add to it.

My favorite is from Mark Twain: "It's not what you've done that matters - it's what you haven't done."

Thanks for sharing.

Oh, who wrote "I'd rather look back at my life and say . . . "

Bonnie Tharp said...

Morgan Freeman? He came up on Google. Thanks for stopping by, Karen.

Anonymous said...

I have two favorite quotes. The first one is by Gloria Anzaldua "The World I create in writing compensates for what the real world does not give me." And the second quotes is my own. "I write the type of stories I like to read."

Bonnie Tharp said...

Good quotes everyone. Thanks for sharing them.

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