The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “writing”

Roald Dahl on How Illness Emboldens Creativity: A Moving Letter to His Bedridden Mentor
Roald Dahl on How Illness Emboldens Creativity: A Moving Letter to His Bedridden Mentor

“I doubt I would have written a line … unless some minor tragedy had sort of twisted my mind out of the normal rut.”

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E.B. White on How to Write for Children and the Writer’s Responsibility to All Readers
E.B. White on How to Write for Children and the Writer’s Responsibility to All Readers

“Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down.”

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How to Read Intelligently and Write a Great Essay: Robert Frost’s Letter of Advice to His Young Daughter
How to Read Intelligently and Write a Great Essay: Robert Frost’s Letter of Advice to His Young Daughter

“The sidelong glance is what you depend on.”

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How to Work Through Difficulty: Lewis Carroll’s Three Tips for Overcoming Creative Block
How to Work Through Difficulty: Lewis Carroll’s Three Tips for Overcoming Creative Block

“When you have made a thorough and reasonably long effort, to understand a thing, and still feel puzzled by it, stop, you will only hurt yourself by going on.”

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The Paradox of Intellectual Promiscuity: Stephen Jay Gould on What Nabokov’s Butterfly Studies Reveal About the Unity of Creativity
The Paradox of Intellectual Promiscuity: Stephen Jay Gould on What Nabokov’s Butterfly Studies Reveal About the Unity of Creativity

“There is no science without fancy, and no art without facts.”

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How Steinbeck Used the Diary as a Tool of Discipline, a Hedge Against Self-Doubt, and a Pacemaker for the Heartbeat of Creative Work
How Steinbeck Used the Diary as a Tool of Discipline, a Hedge Against Self-Doubt, and a Pacemaker for the Heartbeat of Creative Work

“Just set one day’s work in front of the last day’s work. That’s the way it comes out. And that’s the only way it does.”

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Virginia Woolf on Writing and Self-Doubt
Virginia Woolf on Writing and Self-Doubt

Consolation for those moments when you can’t tell whether you’re “the divinest genius or the greatest fool in the world.”

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A Decadent Decade of Design Matters: 10 Years of Intelligent and Inspiring Interviews with Creative Icons
A Decadent Decade of Design Matters: 10 Years of Intelligent and Inspiring Interviews with Creative Icons

Stimulating, ennobling, deeply human conversations with Maira Kalman, Seth Godin, Dani Shapiro, Malcolm Gladwell, Chris Ware, Shepard Fairey, and more.

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Poet Mark Strand on Creativity and the Artist’s Task
Poet Mark Strand on Creativity and the Artist’s Task

“It’s such a lucky accident, having been born, that we’re almost obliged to pay attention.”

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The Art of Tough Love: Samuel Beckett Models How to Give Constructive Feedback on Your Friends’ Creative Work
The Art of Tough Love: Samuel Beckett Models How to Give Constructive Feedback on Your Friends’ Creative Work

“If I were less concerned with you I should simply say it is very good.”

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