A piece of writing is a dangerous thing," he said. "It can change your life. Tobias Wolff More Quotes by Tobias Wolff More Quotes From Tobias Wolff Time, which is your enemy in almost everything in this life, is your friend in writing. Tobias Wolff life-is writing enemy We are made to persist. that's how we find out who we are. Tobias Wolff persistence perseverance determination Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it. Tobias Wolff fearlessness One of the things that draws writers to writing is that they can get things right that they got wrong in real life by writing about them. Tobias Wolff real-life real writing The beauty of a fragment is that it still supports the hope of brilliant completeness. Tobias Wolff fragments brilliant support There are very few professions in which people just sit down and think hard for five or six hours a day all by themselves. Of course it's why you want to become a writer — because you have the liberty to do that, but once you have the liberty you also have the obligation to do it. Tobias Wolff writing people thinking Real maturity is the ability to imagine the humanity of every person as fully as you believe in your own humanity. Tobias Wolff maturity real believe Knowing that everything comes to an end is a gift of experience, a consolation gift for knowing that we ourselves are coming to an end. Before we get it we live in a continuous present, and imagine the future as more of that present. Happiness is endless happiness, innocent of its own sure passing. Pain is endless pain. Tobias Wolff imagine pain knowing There’s no right way to tell all stories, only the right way to tell a particular story. Tobias Wolff particular stories way When we are green, still half-created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests, and that falling and dying are for quitters. We live on the innocent and monstrous assurance that we alone, of all the people ever born, have a special arrangement whereby we will be allowed to stay green forever Tobias Wolff dream believe fall We even talked like Hemingway characters, though in travesty, as if to deny our discipleship: That is your bed, and it is a good bed, and you must make it and you must make it well. Or: Today is the day of the meatloaf. The meatloaf is swell. It is swell but when it is gone the not-having meatloaf will be tragic and the meatloaf man will not come anymore. Tobias Wolff today-is-the-day character men In writing you work toward a result you won't see for years, and can't be sure you'll ever see. It takes stamina and self-mastery and faith. It demands those things of you, then gives them back with a little extra, a surprise to keep you coming. It toughens you and clears your head. I could feel it happening. I was saving my life with every word I wrote, and I knew it. Tobias Wolff self writing years Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order. Tobias Wolff insightful stories order Like so many writers I started writing stories because I didn't have much time for anything else. Tobias Wolff writing-stories writing time I teach one semester a year, and this year I'm just teaching one course during that semester, a writing workshop for older students in their late 20s and early 30s, people in our graduate program who are already working on a manuscript and trying to bring it to completion. Tobias Wolff graduation inspirational funny Most of us dont live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented. Tobias Wolff our-lives live-life expression Writers cannot let themselves be servants of the official mythology. They have to, whatever the cost, say what truth they have to say. Tobias Wolff mythology cost writing When your power comes from others, on approval, you are their slave. Never sacrifice yourselves - never! Whoever urges you to self-sacrifice is worse than a common murderer, who at least cuts your throat himself, without persuading YOU to do it. Tobias Wolff sacrifice cutting self The very act of writing assumes, to begin with, that someone cares to hear what you have to say. It assumes that people share, that people can be reached, that people can be touched and even in some cases changed. So many of the things in our world lead us to despair. It seems to me that the final symptom of despair is silence, and that storytelling is one of the sustaining arts; it’s one of the affirming arts. A writer may have a certain pessimism in his outlook, but the very act of being a writer seems to me to be an optimistic act. Tobias Wolff optimistic writing art You boys know what tropism is, it's what makes a plant grow toward the light. Everything aspires to the light. You don't have to chase down a fly to get rid of it - you just darken the room, leave a crack of light in a window, and out he goes. Works every time. We all have that instinct, that aspiration. Science can't dim that. All science can do is turn out the false lights so the true light can get us home. Tobias Wolff light home boys
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