Quotes About Inspiration

Why is it that in all the adventure movies the heroine doesn't have to get up and go to work?

I'd like to do something that means more, something that will outlast me the way these buildings have outlasted the men who built them." "I hadn't thought of it that way before," said Willon slowly. "But immortality . . . I think that's a basic instinct rather than the product of pride.

When he grew up, he wanted to be like Charles.

It has always been an ambition of mine to serve as an object lesson for others.

some of the original authors like Hartman von Aue or Wolfram von Eschenbach.

What's next on your reading list?

Murphy is a writer's best friend, but you have to keep an eye on him, or he'll steal the silver.

Tell the story you want to tell, and let it be as long as it needs to be. Worry about marketing it later.

In fact, "talent" is as common as mud; what's rare is the motivation to sit down and actually do something with one's talent, the discipline to do it regularly, and the persistence to stick with it until it's finished.

One of the things everybody seems to want to ask writers is, "Where do you get your ideas?" When people ask me this, my usual response is, "Ideas are the easy part. The hard part is writing them down.

I need solitude for my writing; not like a hermit—that wouldn't be enough—but like a dead man.

I already know (or believe—which comes to the same thing in my Catholic worldview) that daydreaming doesn't make things up. It sees things. Claims things, twirls them around, takes a good look. Possesses them. Embraces them.Makes something of them. Makes sense. Or music. How restful it is, how full of motion. My first paradox.

Humans need each other for equilibrium and support. But writers must pull aside to take a quiet walk alone, not just for the sake of serenity but to hear the Voice inside. That is how the storyteller connects with with others--listen, write, share.

The conflict each day is whether to immerse in books or writing. I can't do one without the other, but I can't do both at the same time. It is the writer's paradox.

I started out hoping to remind people at some point in the novel that we should be loving and kind. But then the theme usurped my life, spilling over into my novels until love was no longer a small voice, but now my purpose as a writer.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

head, and then

The passion for the story is the wind in your narrative sails. Begin at the heart. We must hear the heartbeat of the story. Love your characters into existence.

The easiest way to keep true to your core values is to invoke what we call the four core value inspirations: IMPROVE APPRECIATE CONNECT PROTECT Inspiration means "breathe in." If you take a deep breath and try to improve, appreciate, connect, or protect, you will find yourself back to what is most important to you.

I've often wondered what would happen if, in the interest of public service, advertising companies lent out their best copywriters for a year or so to team up with teachers in designing educational materials.

You have a story in there, Lucy," she said, touching my head. "Or a character, a place, a poem, a moment in time. When you find it, you will write it. Word after word after word after word," she whispered.

It's WA today, Minna," called Orson from across the room, Orson's name for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Orson played second violin with a sloppy serenity, rolling his eyes and sticking out his tongue, his bowing long and sweeping and beautiful even when out of tune. "If you must make a mistake," he had quoted, "make it a big one." Was it Heifetz who had said it? Perlman? Zukerman maybe?

Miss Skylark once said it's heroic to make something beautiful out of a blank page," I say. "With art or words.