You don't teach information in a writing workshop. by Tobias Wolff

You don't teach information in a writing workshop.

Tobias Wolff

Image Embed Code

Categorized in : Writing Information Teach

Time, which is your enemy in almost everything in this life, is y... by Tobias Wolff

Time, which is your enemy in almost everything in this life, is your friend in writing.

life-is writing enemy

We are made to persist. that's how we find out who we are. by Tobias Wolff

We are made to persist. that's how we find out who we are.

persistence perseverance determination

Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who hav... by Tobias Wolff

Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it.

A piece of writing is a dangerous thing," he said. "It can change... by Tobias Wolff

A piece of writing is a dangerous thing," he said. "It can change your life.

pieces writing inspirational

One of the things that draws writers to writing is that they can get things right that they got wrong in real life by writing about them.

real-life real writing

The beauty of a fragment is that it still supports the hope of br... by Tobias Wolff

The beauty of a fragment is that it still supports the hope of brilliant completeness.

fragments brilliant support

There are very few professions in which people just sit down and think hard for five or six hours a day all by themselves. Of course it's why you want to become a writer — because you have the liberty to do that, but once you have the liberty you also have the obligation to do it.

writing people thinking

Real maturity is the ability to imagine the humanity of every person as fully as you believe in your own humanity.

maturity real believe

Knowing that everything comes to an end is a gift of experience, a consolation gift for knowing that we ourselves are coming to an end. Before we get it we live in a continuous present, and imagine the future as more of that present. Happiness is endless happiness, innocent of its own sure passing. Pain is endless pain.

imagine pain knowing

There’s no right way to tell all stories, only the right way to t... by Tobias Wolff

There’s no right way to tell all stories, only the right way to tell a particular story.

particular stories way

When we are green, still half-created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests, and that falling and dying are for quitters. We live on the innocent and monstrous assurance that we alone, of all the people ever born, have a special arrangement whereby we will be allowed to stay green forever

dream believe fall

We even talked like Hemingway characters, though in travesty, as if to deny our discipleship: That is your bed, and it is a good bed, and you must make it and you must make it well. Or: Today is the day of the meatloaf. The meatloaf is swell. It is swell but when it is gone the not-having meatloaf will be tragic and the meatloaf man will not come anymore.

today-is-the-day character men

In writing you work toward a result you won't see for years, and can't be sure you'll ever see. It takes stamina and self-mastery and faith. It demands those things of you, then gives them back with a little extra, a surprise to keep you coming. It toughens you and clears your head. I could feel it happening. I was saving my life with every word I wrote, and I knew it.

self writing years

Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be... by Tobias Wolff

Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order.

insightful stories order

Like so many writers I started writing stories because I didn't h... by Tobias Wolff

Like so many writers I started writing stories because I didn't have much time for anything else.

writing-stories writing time

I teach one semester a year, and this year I'm just teaching one course during that semester, a writing workshop for older students in their late 20s and early 30s, people in our graduate program who are already working on a manuscript and trying to bring it to completion.

graduation inspirational funny

Most of us dont live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented.

our-lives live-life expression

Writers cannot let themselves be servants of the official mythology. They have to, whatever the cost, say what truth they have to say.

mythology cost writing

When your power comes from others, on approval, you are their slave. Never sacrifice yourselves - never! Whoever urges you to self-sacrifice is worse than a common murderer, who at least cuts your throat himself, without persuading YOU to do it.

sacrifice cutting self

The very act of writing assumes, to begin with, that someone cares to hear what you have to say. It assumes that people share, that people can be reached, that people can be touched and even in some cases changed. So many of the things in our world lead us to despair. It seems to me that the final symptom of despair is silence, and that storytelling is one of the sustaining arts; it’s one of the affirming arts. A writer may have a certain pessimism in his outlook, but the very act of being a writer seems to me to be an optimistic act.

optimistic writing art