We tend to defend vigorously things that in our deepest hearts we are not quite certain about. If we are certain of something we know, it doesn't need defending. Madeleine L'Engle More Quotes by Madeleine L'Engle More Quotes From Madeleine L'Engle prayer is whenever we consciously try to get in contact with the numinous, the ineffable, the marvelous. Madeleine L'Engle ineffable prayer trying Art is not a mirror but an icon. It takes the chaos in which we live and shows us structure and pattern, not the structure of conformity which imprisons but the structure which liberates, Madeleine L'Engle icons mirrors art You learn to write by doing it. Madeleine L'Engle writing I know writers who write only when inspiration comes. How would Isaac Stern play if he played the violin only when he felt like it? He would be lousy. Madeleine L'Engle inspiration play writing Stories have a richness that goes way beyond fact. My writing knows more than I know. What a writer must do is listen to her book. It might take you where you don't expect to go. Madeleine L'Engle stories writing book During the long drag of years before our youngest child went to school, my love for my family and my need to write were in acute conflict. The problem was really that I put two things first. My husband and children came first. So did my writing. Bump. Madeleine L'Engle husband writing children I can't think of one great human being in the arts, or in history generally, who conformed, who succeeded, as education experts tell us children must succeed, with his peer group. Madeleine L'Engle success children art As human beings, the closest we can get to truth is through story. Madeleine L'Engle truth-is humans stories And sometimes when we listen, we are led into places we do not expect, into adventures we do not always understand. Madeleine L'Engle adventure sometimes If you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Madeleine L'Engle want writing needs Be aware that rigidity imprisons. Madeleine L'Engle rigidity Women must be very gentle with men as they, as well as women, seek to regain the lost wholeness for which they were destined. Madeleine L'Engle gentle lost men When we can play with the unself-conscious concentration of a child, this is: art: prayer: love. Madeleine L'Engle prayer children art The novelist helps us to see things we might not notice otherwise. Madeleine L'Engle novelists helping might science never threatens God - it opens up more possibilities. Madeleine L'Engle possibility god science There's nothing more physically exhausting than a sense of failure. Madeleine L'Engle exhausting failure I rebel against death, yet I know that it is how I respond to death's inevitability that is going to make me less or more fully alive. Madeleine L'Engle rebel alive knows The degree of talent, the size of the gift, is immaterial. All artists must listen, but not all hear great symphonies, see wide canvasses, conceive complex, character-filled novels. No Madeleine L'Engle symphony artist character If I have something I want to say that is too difficult for adults to swallow, then I will write it in a book for children. Madeleine L'Engle writing book children To write for children at all is an act of faith. Madeleine L'Engle literature writing children
