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“We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded. This is how writers must think, this is how we must sit down with pen in hand. We were here; we are human beings; this is how we lived. Let it be known, the earth passed before us. Our details are important. Otherwise, if they are not, we can drop a bomb and it doesn't matter. . . Recording the details of our lives is a stance against bombs with their mass ability to kill, against too much speed and efficiency. A writer must say yes to life, to all of life: the water glasses, the Kemp's half-and-half, the ketchup on the counter. It is not a writer's task to say, "It is dumb to live in a small town or to eat in a café when you can eat macrobiotic at home." Our task is to say a holy yes to the real things of our life as they exist – the real truth of who we are: several pounds overweight, the gray, cold street outside, the Christmas tinsel in the showcase, the Jewish writer in the orange booth across from her blond friend who has black children. We must become writers who accept things as they are, come to love the details, and step forward with a yes on our lips so there can be no more noes in the world, noes that invalidate life and stop these details from continuing.”
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
“I think talent is like a water table under the earth—you tap it with your effort and it comes through you.”
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
“Writing is the act of discovery.”
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
“First, consider the pen you write with. It should be a fast-writing pen because your thoughts are always much faster than your hand. You don't want to slow up your hand even more with a slow pen. A ballpoint, a pencil, a felt tip, for sure, are slow. Go to a stationery store and see what feels good to you. Try out different kinds. Don't get too fancy and expensive. I mostly use a cheap Sheaffer fountain pen, about $1.95.... You want to be able to feel the connection and texture of the pen on paper.”
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
― Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
Loay’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Loay’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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