I don't know where to start, " one [writing student] will wail. Start with your childhood, I tell them. Plug your nose and jump in, and write down all your memories as truthfully as you can. Flannery O' Connor said that anyone who has survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life. Maybe your childhood was grim and horrible, but grim and horrible is Okay if it is well done. Don't worry about doing it well yet, though. Just get it down. . Anne Lamott
About This Quote

Flannery O' Connor is an American writer of short stories and novels. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" in 1955. Her writing style is considered dark and depressing. It is often characterized by the use of biblical allusions, grotesque imagery, and irony. Her stories are often told through the perspective of women, usually female protagonists.

Source: Bird By Bird: Some Instructions On Writing And Life

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Well-being is attained little by little, and nevertheless is no little thing itself. - Zeno Of Citium

  2. The initial animosity between divergent approaches can be overcome if we realize that each has something to offer that the other lacks. We may weave them together into a new whole that is stronger than the sum of its parts. - Frans De Waal

  3. Yes, a war is inevitable. Firstly, there's you fellows who can't be trusted. And then there's the multitude who mean to have bathrooms and white enamel. Millions of them; all over the world. Not merely here. And there aren't enough bathrooms and white enamel in... - Ford Madox Ford

  4. Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are done, we recognize one thing: that the human race has been badly manhandled, but that it has moved forward. - Victor Hugo

  5. Be not the first by whom the new is tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside, ” is a safe rule for those who would always retain the good opinion of that all-powerful, but somewhat unintelligent, incubus, “the average person, ” but... - Jerome K. Jerome

More Quotes By Anne Lamott
  1. I'd like to do a Christmas album. I've never done a Christmas album.

  2. It's so funny because I listen to songs that I recorded that I didn't really know anything about at the time. Later on I'm starting to feel the songs. Sing them first, feel them later.

  3. I don't know what keeps me going. Sometimes I wonder... I think it's just pure perseverance and wanting to succeed and having that burning desire to always have success.

Related Topics