The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “writing”

Zadie Smith on the Psychology of the Two Types of Writers
Zadie Smith on the Psychology of the Two Types of Writers

“It’s a feeling of happiness that knocks me clean out of adjectives. I think sometimes that the best reason for writing novels is to experience those four and a half hours after you write the final word.”

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The Hedgehog and the Fox: Italo Calvino on the Two Types of Writers
The Hedgehog and the Fox: Italo Calvino on the Two Types of Writers

“I am a fox, even though I dream of being a hedgehog in all my dreams, and even though I try to write hedgehog books if you take each of them one by one.”

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Ray Bradbury on the Secret of Life, Work, and Love
Ray Bradbury on the Secret of Life, Work, and Love

“I don’t put off to tomorrow doing what I must do, right now, to find out what my secret self needs, wants, desires with all its heart.”

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Bukowski’s Letter of Gratitude to the Man Who Helped Him Quit His Soul-Sucking Job and Become a Full-Time Writer
Bukowski’s Letter of Gratitude to the Man Who Helped Him Quit His Soul-Sucking Job and Become a Full-Time Writer

“To not have entirely wasted one’s life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for myself.”

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Nietzsche’s 10 Rules for Writers, Penned in a Letter to His Lover and Muse
Nietzsche’s 10 Rules for Writers, Penned in a Letter to His Lover and Muse

“Style ought to prove that one believes in an idea; not only that one thinks it but also feels it.”

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Celebrated Writers on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Diary
Celebrated Writers on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Diary

Reflections on the value of recording our inner lives from Woolf, Thoreau, Sontag, Emerson, Nin, Plath, and more.

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The Psychology of Writing and the Cognitive Science of the Perfect Daily Routine
The Psychology of Writing and the Cognitive Science of the Perfect Daily Routine

How to sculpt an environment that optimizes creative flow and summons relevant knowledge from your long-term memory through the right retrieval cues.

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C.S. Lewis’s Ideal Daily Routine
C.S. Lewis’s Ideal Daily Routine

“It is essential of the happy life that a man would have almost no mail.”

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David Foster Wallace on Writing, Self-Improvement, and How We Become Who We Are
David Foster Wallace on Writing, Self-Improvement, and How We Become Who We Are

“Good writing isn’t a science. It’s an art, and the horizon is infinite. You can always get better.”

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The Best-Kept Secret of Clichés: How to Upgrade Our Uses and Abolish Our Abuses of Language
The Best-Kept Secret of Clichés: How to Upgrade Our Uses and Abolish Our Abuses of Language

A manifesto against mindless language, or how to get off autopilot in the art of communication.

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