If you over-plot your book you strangle your characters. Your characters have to have enough freedom and life to be able to surprise you. Alan Lightman More Quotes by Alan Lightman More Quotes From Alan Lightman I value my correspondence with writers...I was in New York and had lunch with Oliver Sachs and compared notes with him - he is someone I really like. I love staying in written correspondence with some writers. That's enough for me. Alan Lightman lunch enough new-york Every reader gets something different from a book and every reader, in a sense, completes it in a different way. Alan Lightman different book way The world is moving faster and faster, but where are we going? Alan Lightman faster world moving In a world of fixed future, life is an infinite corridor of rooms, one room lit at each moment, the next room dark but prepared. We walk from room to room, look into the room that is lit, the present moment, then walk on. We do not know the rooms ahead, but we know we cannot change them. We are spectators of our lives. Alan Lightman dark looks world It's exciting having a student who is not used to expressing their emotional side and bringing that out in them and see that developing and helping to nurture that. That's an exciting thing. In a class of fifteen there are usually two very good writers, equal to good student writers anywhere in the country. Those two make the class wonderful. Alan Lightman emotional class country There is a place where time stands still ...illuminated by only the most feeble red light, for light is diminished to almost nothing at the center of time, its vibrations slowed to echoes in vast canyons, its intensity reduced to the faint glow of fireflies. Alan Lightman firefly echoes light Nature is purposeless. Nature simply is. We may find nature beautiful or terrible, but those feelings are human constructions. Such utter and complete mindlessness is hard for us to accept. We feel such a strong connection to nature. But the relationship between nature and us is one-sided. There is no reciprocity. There is no mind on the other side of the wall. Alan Lightman wall strong beautiful Everyone shares the same fate. Alan Lightman fate share A world with one month is a world of equality. Alan Lightman months world What sense is there in continuing when one has seen the future? Alan Lightman continuing The urge to discover, to invent, to know the unknown, seems so deeply human that we cannot imagine our history without it. Alan Lightman imagine humans discovery A life is a moment in season. A life is one snowfall. A life is one autumn day. A life is the delicate, rapid edge of a closing door's shadow. A life is a brief movement of arms and of legs. Alan Lightman autumn doors life Events, once happened, lose reality, alter with a glance, a storm, a night. In time, the past never happened. But who could know? Who could know that the past is not as solid as this instant. Alan Lightman night reality past I think people all over the institution recognize that different ways of understanding are valuable. Artists may think in a different way than biologists or chemists, but you can learn something from that. It is true that the arts at MIT don't have the same amount of funding or same status as the sciences or engineering. Alan Lightman engineering art thinking Order is the law of nature, the universal trend, the cosmic direction. If time is an arrow, that arrow points toward order. The future is pattern, organization, union, intensification; the past, randomness, confusion, disintegration, dissipation. Alan Lightman law order past If I were not a writer, I would spend more time doing the things that I am already doing, which include doing research in physics, teaching, and running a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower women in Cambodia. Alan Lightman organization teaching running Some make light of decisions, arguing that all possible decisions will occur. In such a world, how could one be responsible for his actions? Others hold that each decision must be considered and committed to, that without commitment there is chaos. Such people are content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each. Alan Lightman light long commitment I'm humbled and enormously grateful to be connected to [Franz] Kafka in a any way. He is one of the writers I admire. I think he has been a big influence on me. I appreciate the idea of the individual person battling the society - which is true in all his books. Alan Lightman grateful book thinking My writings are an exploration, and I think a lot of writers would tell you this, but in writing, you're not simply putting down things that are already known to you. You're actually discovering in the writing process, you're actually creating knowledge. Alan Lightman creating writing thinking Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone. Alan Lightman stuck persons
