Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes.

Jacques Barzun
Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble,...
Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble,...
Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble,...
Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble,...
About This Quote

I used to believe that if I didn't write a poem, I had failed. I especially wanted to impress others with my writing. However, after I wrote this quote and I read it back, I realized that what matters is not the ability to write a beautiful line of poetry so much as the ability to be a critic of your work. You can't please everyone with your writing, but you can improve your writing and learn from your mistakes so that the next time you try something different, you are more likely to succeed.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world. It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot. The person you love sits across from you, and you want to do everything in your power to... - David Levithan
  2. Some moments are nice, some arenicer, some are even worthwritingabout. - Charles Bukowski
  3. Living with him is like being told a perpetual story: his mind is the biggest, most imaginative I have ever met. I could live in its growing countries forever. - Sylvia Plath
  4. There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it. - Shannon L. Alder
  5. When you're missing a peice of yourself, aching, gut wrenching emptiness begins to take over. Until you find the link that completes your very soul, the feeling will never go away. Most people find a way to fill this void, material possessions, a string of... - Jennifer Salaiz
More Quotes By Jacques Barzun
  1. Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes.
  2. Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
  3. Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about people in the past are a form of injustice.
  4. Bad writing, it is easily verified, has never kept scholarship from being published.
  5. What we ask of a writer in the first place is a unique voice. We ask for the rest later, and we may even pretend that it is only the later things we required -- no personal, individual, induplicable quality, just pure art.
Related Topics