The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “writing”

Kierkegaard on Popular Opinion, the Petty Jealousies of Criticism, and the Only Cure for Embitterment in Creative Work
Kierkegaard on Popular Opinion, the Petty Jealousies of Criticism, and the Only Cure for Embitterment in Creative Work

“I need the enchantment of creative work to help me forget life’s mean pettinesses.”

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The Workhorse and the Butterfly: Ann Patchett on Writing and Why Self-Forgiveness Is the Most Important Ingredient of Great Art
The Workhorse and the Butterfly: Ann Patchett on Writing and Why Self-Forgiveness Is the Most Important Ingredient of Great Art

“The ability to forgive oneself … is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life.”

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Creative Courage for Young Hearts: 15 Emboldening Picture Books Celebrating the Lives of Great Artists, Writers, and Scientists
Creative Courage for Young Hearts: 15 Emboldening Picture Books Celebrating the Lives of Great Artists, Writers, and Scientists

Jane Goodall, Julia Child, Pablo Neruda, Marie Curie, E.E. Cummings, Albert Einstein, Ella Fitzgerald, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Frida Kahlo, and more.

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Susan Sontag on Storytelling, What It Means to Be a Good Human Being, and Her Advice to Writers
Susan Sontag on Storytelling, What It Means to Be a Good Human Being, and Her Advice to Writers

“Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay attention to the world.”

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André Gide on Sincerity, Being vs. Appearing, and What It Really Means to Be Yourself
André Gide on Sincerity, Being vs. Appearing, and What It Really Means to Be Yourself

“Don’t ever do anything through affectation or to make people like you or through imitation or for the pleasure of contradicting.”

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E.B. White on Creativity and the Two Sides of Discipline
E.B. White on Creativity and the Two Sides of Discipline

How to ride the “wave of emotion” in creative work on a raft of conscientious revision.

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The Art of Motherfuckitude: Cheryl Strayed’s Advice to an Aspiring Writer on Faith and Humility
The Art of Motherfuckitude: Cheryl Strayed’s Advice to an Aspiring Writer on Faith and Humility

“Writing is hard for every last one of us… Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig.”

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Grandmother’s Glass Eye: Elizabeth Bishop on How Poetry Pretends Life into Reality
Grandmother’s Glass Eye: Elizabeth Bishop on How Poetry Pretends Life into Reality

On the glorious “difficulty of combining the real with the decidedly un-real.”

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Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer on Freedom and What Status Really Means for a Writer
Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer on Freedom and What Status Really Means for a Writer

“All worthwhile writing… comes from an individual vision, privately pursued.”

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Walter Benjamin on Finding Wisdom in the Age of Information and Storytelling as the Antidote to Death by News
Walter Benjamin on Finding Wisdom in the Age of Information and Storytelling as the Antidote to Death by News

“The value of information does not survive the moment in which it was new. It lives only at that moment; it has to surrender to it completely and explain itself to it without losing any time. A story is different. It does not expend itself. It preserves and concentrates its strength and is capable of releasing it even after a long time.”

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