On Writing....

Man is born to create; in creating he becomes himself, accomplishes his destiny. His whole life is only an initation into the creative power. To create is not merely to produce a work; it is to give out one's own individuality. Man becomes a creator when, after the innumerable stages of adaptation to alien influence, he finally grasps what is really his own, what he receives, not from men, but directly from God as a special personal message. 

                                                        - Jeanne De Vietinghoff: The Understanding of Good

Writing in any sense that matters, cannot be taught. It can only be learned, and learned by each separate one of us in his own way, by the use of his own powers of imagination and perception, the ability to learn the lessons he has set for himself.

                                                        - May Sarton: A Self Potrait 

So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its color, in deference to some Headmaster with a silver pot on his hand or to some professor with a measuring-rod up his sleeve, is the most abject treachery, and the sacrifice of wealth and chastity which used to be said to be the greatest of human disasters, a mere flea-bite in comparison.

                                                       - Virginia Woolf: A Room of One's Own

At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then - and only then - it is handed to you.

                                                       - Anne Dillard: The Writing Life

Humbly yours,

Née Fe Mi