There is a sense in which we are all each other's consequences Wallace Stegner More Quotes by Wallace Stegner More Quotes From Wallace Stegner When I was twenty I was in love with words, a wordsmith. I didn't know enough to know when people were letting words get in their way. Now I like the words to disappear, like a transparent curtain. Wallace Stegner twenties people way He used to tell me, 'Do what you like to do. It'll probably turn out to be what you do best. Wallace Stegner turns used I consider the integrity of the material to be of greater value than any message I might want to get across. Wallace Stegner want might integrity Grub Street turns out good things almost as often as Parnassus. For if a writer is hard up enough, if he’s far down enough (down where I have been and am rising from, I am really saying), he can’t afford self-doubt and he can’t let other people’s opinions, even a father’s, keep him from writing. Wallace Stegner self writing father But however you might rebel, there was no shedding them. They were your responsibility and there was no one to relieve you of them. They called you Sis. All your life people called you Sis, because that was what you were, or what you became - big sister, helpful sister, the one upon whom everyone depended, the one they all came to for everything from help with homework to a sliver under the fingernail. Wallace Stegner sisterhood responsibility people I think, don't you, that a girl with any delicacy of feeling couldn't bring herself to marry a man indirectly responsible for her father's death. No matter how much she was in love with him. Wallace Stegner girl breakup father Young writers should be encouraged to write, and discouraged from thinking they are writers. Wallace Stegner teaching writing thinking I am impressed by how much of my grandparent's life depended on continuities, contacts, connections, friendships, and blood relationships. Wallace Stegner grandparent connections blood Every action is an idea before it is an action, and perhaps a feeling before it is an idea, and every idea rests upon other ideas that have preceded it in time. Wallace Stegner action feelings ideas You achieve stature only by being good enough to deserve it, by forcing even the contemptuous and indifferent to pay attention, and to acknowledge that human relations and human emotions are of inexhaustible interest wherever they occur. Wallace Stegner emotion pay attention We need wilderness preserved-as much of it as is still left, and as many kinds-because it was the challenge against which our character as a people was formed. Wallace Stegner challenges character people Are writers reporters, prophets, crazies, entertainers, preachers, judges, what? Wallace Stegner prophet preacher judging That is all the National Parks are about. Use, but do no harm. Wallace Stegner national-parks parks use I shall be richer all my life for this sorrow Wallace Stegner sorrow Faith can reclaim deserts as well as move mountains. Wallace Stegner desert mountain moving Salt is added to dried rose petals with the perfume and spices, when we store them away in covered jars, the summers of our past. Wallace Stegner summer rose past A western buckaroo, I share his scorn for people who go camping by the book, relying on the authority of some half-assed assistant scoutmaster whose total experience outdoors probably consists of two overnight hikes and a weekend in the Catskills. But we have just had that confrontation. The one who goes by Pritchard's book is Sid's wife, and I am wary. It is not my expedition. I am a guest here. Wallace Stegner weekend two book A muddy little stream, a village grown unfamiliar with time and trees. I turn around and retrace my way up Main Street and park and have a Coke in the confectionery store. It is run by a Greek, as it used to be, but whether the same Greek or another I would not know. He does not recognize me, nor I him. Only the smell of his place is familiar, syrupy with old delights, as if the ghost of my first banana split had come close to breathe on me. Wallace Stegner smell running tree The perfect weather of Indian Summer lengthened and lingered, warm sunny days were followed by brisk nights with Halloween a presentiment in the air. Wallace Stegner halloween summer night It's easier to die than to move ... at least for the Other Side you don't need trunks. Wallace Stegner sides moving needs
