Trust your imagination. Don't be afraid to fail. Write. Revise. Revise. Revise. Jeff VanderMeer More Quotes by Jeff VanderMeer More Quotes From Jeff VanderMeer I like to go through the zine sections of local bookstores when on the road and have found a lot of really great kind of underground stuff that way. It all feeds into everything else. Jeff VanderMeer zines bookstores stuff The world is a mysterious place and the very limitation of our senses in exploring it means we are sometimes aware of there being something beyond our ken. Jeff VanderMeer mysterious mean world I've always wrestled with the difference between plot and structure, and after re-reading a lot of writing books I realized I wasn't alone. Jeff VanderMeer reading writing book Cross-pollination and "contamination" is really important to the health of fiction, and sometimes it's a literal conversation, too, in that writers who might never otherwise meet and talk do so because of our anthologies. Jeff VanderMeer important might fiction Angela Carter, Leonora Carrington, even nonsurrealists like Kafka and Nabokov - writers like these, who create paths between the firmly grounded and flights of fantasy, are my personal North Star. Jeff VanderMeer fantasy stars path I also am not particularly risk-averse - I don't mind jumping off a cliff if I trust the people who've told me they'll catch me at the bottom. Jeff VanderMeer risk jumping people What I envy about musicians is, they have this more direct relationship with the audience. They don't have to go through words. Sure, the lyrics count, but they go more immediately into your brain. There's so much more work you have to put in as a writer - not just with the actual book, but how it's packaged and everything. Jeff VanderMeer envy brain book My singing ability is zilch. Jeff VanderMeer ability singing I have to have music as a soundtrack to writing fiction. I listen to it at other times, too, but it helps me write. Jeff VanderMeer writing helping fiction
