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“Yes, I hate orthodox criticism. I don't mean great criticism, like that of Matthew Arnold and others, but the usual small niggling, fussy-mussy criticism, which thinks it can improve people by telling them where they are wrong, and results only in putting them in straitjackets of hesitancy and self-consciousness, and weazening all vision and bravery.
...I hate it because of all the potentially shining, gentle, gifted people of all ages, that it snuffs out every year. It is a murderer of talent. And because the most modest and sensitive people are the most talented, having the most imagination and sympathy, these are the very first ones to get killed off. It is the brutal egotists that survive.”
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
...I hate it because of all the potentially shining, gentle, gifted people of all ages, that it snuffs out every year. It is a murderer of talent. And because the most modest and sensitive people are the most talented, having the most imagination and sympathy, these are the very first ones to get killed off. It is the brutal egotists that survive.”
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
“Creative power flourishes only when I am living in the present.”
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
“Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be. ”
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
“The only good teachers for you are those friends who love you, who think you are interesting, or very important, or wonderfully funny; whose attitude is:
"Tell me more. Tell me all you can. I want to understand more about everything you feel and know and all the changes inside and out of you. Let more come out."
And if you have no such friend,--and you want to write,--well, then you must imagine one. ”
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
"Tell me more. Tell me all you can. I want to understand more about everything you feel and know and all the changes inside and out of you. Let more come out."
And if you have no such friend,--and you want to write,--well, then you must imagine one. ”
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
“We have come to think that duty should come first. I disagree. Duty should be a by-product. Writing, the creative effort, the use of the imagination, should come first – at least, for some part of every day of your life. It is a wonderful blessing if you use it. You will become happier, more enlightened, alive, impassioned, light-hearted and generous to everybody else. Even your health will improve. Colds will disappear and all the other ailments of discouragement and boredom.”
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
― If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
LL’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at LL’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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