I would rather have regrets of excess than regrets of denial. Jeanette Winterson More Quotes by Jeanette Winterson More Quotes From Jeanette Winterson Thinking about time is to acknowledge two contradictory certainties: that our outward lives are governed by the seasons and the clock; that our inward lives are governed by something much less regular-an imaginative impulse cutting through the dictates of daily time, and leaving us free to ignore the boundaries of here and now and pass like lightning along the coil of pure time, that is, the circle of the universe and whatever it does or does not contain. Jeanette Winterson circles cutting thinking There's a whole generation growing up thinking you shouldn't seek knowledge for its own sake, and that theatre and art and books are activities that you do after-hours, rather than things that are at the heart of life. That's a huge change. Jeanette Winterson growing-up book art You're never alone with a book, are you? It's a dialogue. Jeanette Winterson dialogue book I don't own my emotions unless I can think about them. I am not afraid of feeling but I am afraid of feeling unthinkingly. I don't want to drown. My head is my heart's lifebelt. Jeanette Winterson feelings heart thinking I believe you have to write every day–make the time. It’s about having an organized mind instead of a chaotic and untidy one. There is a myth that writers are bohemian and do what they like in their own way. Real writers are the most organized people on the planet. You have to be. You’re doing the work and running your own business as well. It’s an incredibly organized state. [Also reading]…one of the things reading does do is discipline your mind. There are no writers who are not readers. Jeanette Winterson real running believe The probability of separate worlds meeting is very small. The lure of it is immense. We send starships. We fall in love. Jeanette Winterson probability falling-in-love world We [fiction writers] are much more of a maze than we are a motorway. Things are always in flux, they're always in movement, they're always twisting back on each other. I think the straight line is such a lie. Jeanette Winterson mazes lying thinking Great control and great discipline are necessary when you reach your own editing stage of the book, but in the early stages you have to be prepared to let anything happen and to get it wrong or go off track. The development of a character is not smooth or simple - it is as tricky as meeting someone new whom you would like to know better. Jeanette Winterson simple character book I wanted to invent myself as a fictional character. And I did, and it has caused a great deal of confusion. Jeanette Winterson confusion literature character If you don't educate people well, then you're going to have a lot of violent, angry young men and women. You can go around saying they're all so violent, just throw them in jail, this is an underclass, what can you do? You can create fear. The issue of violence is very suitable for a repressive society. Then you can have more legislation, more police, more laws to fight crime, when all you need to do is to encourage people in a different way. Jeanette Winterson jail fighting men It may be that you are settled in another place it may be that you are happy but the one who took your heart wields final power. Jeanette Winterson finals heart may The crazy thing is that when we go to somebody's house, what's better than looking at their bookshelves? Nobody's ever going to say, "Can I see the index to your Kindle?" It's so depressing and so unsexy. Sure, it's there, but nobody is going to get excited by that. Jeanette Winterson depressing crazy house Part fact part fiction is what life is. And it is always a cover story. I wrote my way out. Jeanette Winterson stories writing fiction Seeing one's books on the shelf tells you so much about the way somebody has, over the years, put together their private library, which is a reflection of their minds and their selves. Jeanette Winterson reflection self book I learned capacity for self-reflection very early, finding it through interior monologues that books are so good at and that visual media is so bad at because it's so boring - nothing's happening. In a book, you can be inside the narrator's head for 50 pages, and nothing needs to happen. Then you learn to be inside your own head without something needing to happen. It's a very good antidote to a crazy, restless, "what's next?" culture - that you can just be in your own head and nothing is happening except that this is a rich place. I love that. Jeanette Winterson crazy reflection book Some people are happy when they are at the sea; I'm happy when I'm standing in front of a shelf of books. It feels like the known place and also the beginning of a new adventure. It has that simultaneous paradoxical effect of making me feel absolutely calm and very excited. Jeanette Winterson sea adventure book I drove to Oxford with my van full of petrol and tin cans, as I didn't know there were service stations on the motorway. I pulled up on the hard shoulder and got my cans out. Then I filled up and set off again. That's how naive I was - so much not a cosmopolitan girl. Jeanette Winterson filled-up girl oxford Only the impossible is worth the effort. Jeanette Winterson effort impossible Everything is imprinted for ever with what it once was. Jeanette Winterson Art is a foreign city, and we deceive ourselves when we think it familiar. We have to recognize that the language of art, all art, is not our mother tongue. Jeanette Winterson mother art thinking
