Anna Howard’s Reviews > Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life > Status Update

“One of the magic tricks of repetition is that it *enacts* remembering. Thanks about it: memory is a kind of haunting, so repetition is a kind of haunting in a text.”

“I don’t want what I write—or what I read— to be “safe.” I’m not seeking to be made comfortable, or to be appeased, or to have my ideas confirmed. I want to be challenged, to feel deeply, to think hard.”

“It takes confidence to be spare—to hand the reader an image or an idea, and to resist the urge to explain. Overwriting comes from a lack of trust in ourselves and the reader. “