Writing has been my window-flung wide open to this magnificent, chaotic existence-my way of interpreting everything within my grasp. Dani Shapiro More Quotes by Dani Shapiro More Quotes From Dani Shapiro I've certainly faced some raw, real pain in my life. I lost my father to a car accident when I was young. My mother died ten years ago. My son was very sick as an infant. Eventually, I have attempted to transform this pain into art, to make meaning out of it. Dani Shapiro pain mother art Our teachers are everywhere. Our teachers are right in front of us, and take so many forms. All we need to do is to open our eyes, to be open to and aware of the possibilities. Otherwise, we walk sightless among miracles. Dani Shapiro miracle eye teacher I don't want to lean back into the past, or forward into the future. I don't want to wish the present moment away. Dani Shapiro wish want past The truth is in the present moment. Dani Shapiro present-moment truth-is moments What's more important that spiritual life? It seems to me it's the bedrock of everything essential about being human. Dani Shapiro essentials important spiritual From spiritual connection springs kindness, connection, social activism, and love. Dani Shapiro spiritual kindness spring Logic and faith don't occupy the same side. Dani Shapiro logic sides There are books that a writer undertakes because she wants to go on a journey, and there are journeys a writer undertakes because she wants to write a book. Dani Shapiro journey writing book I could spend two years cross-legged on my floor and feel like I was working. Dani Shapiro crosses two years I needed to slow down and quiet down deeply into a lot of these questions, yet at the same time what I was looking for, and continue to, is a way to have this exist within a regular, normal, modern life. Dani Shapiro down-and modern-life way It's not gender-specific, but I do think it's women who tend to start having that sort of little whispering voice of "I want more here" and "I want more for my family." Dani Shapiro whispering voice thinking There's nothing confessional about crafting and shaping a story out of a lived life. In fact, it's quite the opposite - the writer has to be able to transcend the life, to see it as if standing outside of it, in order to be able to make something of it. There's something enormously satisfying and gratifying about crafting something, taking all that chaos and giving it shape. Dani Shapiro opposites giving order The mind is a monkey, hopping around from thought to thought, image to image. Rarely do more than a few seconds go by in which the mind can remain single-pointed, empty. Dani Shapiro monkey thought go mind Writers are outsiders. Even when we seem like insiders, we're outsiders. We have to be. Our noses pressed to the glass, we notice everything. We mull and interpret. We store away clues, details that may be useful to us later. Dani Shapiro glass everything like details I don't think it's possible to separate out the strands of a writer's history, circumstances, life events, and that writer's themes. Dani Shapiro think circumstances life history I am devoted to my husband and son. I am devoted to the practices and rituals that imbue our lives with a sense of meaning and purpose, that help me to live my days in the most emotionally and intellectually productive manner. I am devoted to the idea of devotion itself. Dani Shapiro i-am me husband son When we reach reflexively for something to dull an ache inside of us, in that very moment of reaching, we are hiding from our pain. We're storing it away. Tamping it down. Dani Shapiro inside down moment pain I knew I wanted to be a writer before I knew that being a writer was possible. Dani Shapiro knew possible before being Sometimes when I'm at my desk, I'll realize that I have contorted myself completely, and I haven't moved for hours, and that my legs have fallen asleep. I am elsewhere, not in my body, not in the room, not in my house. Dani Shapiro i-am myself body sometimes My dad died when I was 23. His death was sudden and shocking - the result of a car crash - and I never got to say goodbye. Dani Shapiro result car dad death
