I believe poetry has very little to do with memory. Nick Flynn More Quotes by Nick Flynn More Quotes From Nick Flynn Perhaps everyone has a story that could break your heart. Nick Flynn breakstoriesheart On a good day I write, all day. Nick Flynn good-daywriting I became an electrician after high school. But I always had this thing in me to write. But it was always a little shameful. To say you were a poet was saying you were kind of crazy, and I carried that around for a long time. I still kind of carry that. And I think it might be true, actually. Nick Flynn crazywritingschool Writers, especially poets, are particularly prone to madness. Nick Flynn manicmadnesspoet Certain stories we carry with us, events in our life, they define who we are. It's not a matter of getting over anything; we have to make the best of it. Nick Flynn who-we-areeventsstories We got him to talk to a psych doctor once, the doctor asked if he heard things other people don't. Sure, Paul answered, I hear birds in the morning when everyone's sleeping, I hear trees rustling when no one's around. Nick Flynn psychsleepmorning Perhaps it is our fear, that in the silence between stories, in the moment of falling, the fear that we will never find the one story which will save us, and so we lunge for another, and we feel safe again, if only for as long as we are telling it. Nick Flynn silencelongfall I get inspired by my friends, and if a friend is a writer, that is even deeper. Nick Flynn inspireddeepermy-friends By the time I make my way to the border of Mauritania, to the edge of the Sahara, I see no end to being lost. You can spend your entire life simply falling in that direction. It isn't a station you reach but just the general state of going down. Once you make it back, if you make it back, you will stand before your long-lost friends but in some essential way they will no longer know you. Nick Flynn essentialslongfall Writers, especially poets, are particularly prone to madness. There exists a striking association between creativity and manic depression. Why are more creative people prone to madness? They have more than average amounts of energies and abilities to see things in a fresh and original way—then because they also have depression, I think they’re more in touch with human suffering. Nick Flynn creativityaveragethinking Sometimes I'd see my father, walking past my building on his way to another nowhere. I could have given him a key, offered a piece of my floor. A futon. A bed. But I never did. If I let him inside I would become him, the line between us would blur, my own slow-motion car wreck would speed up. The slogan on the side of a moving company truck read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING PLACES--modified by a vandal or a disgruntled employee to read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING DOWN. If I went to the drowning man the drowning man would pull me under. I couldn't be his life raft. Nick Flynn menfathermoving By the time I'm nine I know the world is a dangerous place. I've heard whispers about razorblades in apples, about Charlie Manson and his family. But no one is offering any clear information. Nick Flynn applesofferingworld What you fear your whole life comes to pass. You end up living toward it, you spend your life running from it but your foot is nailed to the sidewalk. You circle around it until you wear yourself own. Nick Flynn circlesfeetrunning If it had been a heart attack, the newspapermight have used the word massive,as if a mountain range had openedinside her, but insteadit used the word suddenly, a light coming onin an empty room. The telephonefell from my shoulder, a black parrot repeatingsomething happened, something awfula sunday, dusky. If it had beenterminal, we could have cradled heras she grew smaller, wiped her mouth,said good-bye. But it was sudden,how overnight we could be orphaned& the world became a bell we'd crawl inside& the ringing all we'd eat. Nick Flynn sundayheartbye Memoir is actually the most egoless genre, even though it might seem ostensibly so much ego-driven. In order for it to succeed, you have to dissolve the self into these larger universal truths, and explore these deeper mysteries. If it’s purely autobiographical and ego-driven, it’s going to fail. Nick Flynn egoselforder Read as much as you can. Write only when you feel the inner need to do so. And don’t ever rush into print. Nick Flynn printwritingneeds Everything we do, I'd imagine, influences everything we will do. Nick Flynn imagineinfluence Trinity Park lies directly across from the library, Trinity Church rising like a midieval thought amidst the glass and steel towers. Nick Flynn glasseschurchlying Water can be a symbol of purification, to stand naked before someone a sign of truth, of nothing to hide. - Nick Flynn Nick Flynn purificationnakedwater Alcohol is the river we sit on the banks of, contemplating. Sometimes we watch ourselves float past, sometimes we watch ourselves sink. Nick Flynn alcoholriverspast
