Elizabeth Gilbert's Blog, page 58
June 25, 2014
THE INNER CRITIC Dear Ones — Last night was such a wonderful event in Brooklyn…
THE INNER CRITIC
Dear Ones —
Last night was such a wonderful event in Brooklyn. THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING!
At the end of the evening, we tried something I've never attempted before — a lightning round of questions. The rules were, the audience members could take turns asking me one simple question, and I had to try to answer it in one sentence only, before jumping to the next question. It was incredibly fun and lively (and probably a relief for the audience, since I do tend to give looonnnngggg answers, under normal circumstances.)
I wanted to share with you my favorite exchange, which might be useful to some of you who are struggling through your own doubts and fears about your creativity, or your place in the world…
Q: When you're working on a book, and you're feeling insecure and uncertain about it, how do you silence your "inner critic"?
A: I silence my inner critics exactly the same way I silence my real-life critics: By saying to them very quietly, but very firmly, "If you don't like what I'm doing, go write your own f***king book."
(Short but sweet is sometimes the best way to handle things.)
…and I will see you tonight, RIDGEWOOD, NJ!
…and I will see you Friday night, ASHEVILLE, NC!
For a complete list of my tour stops, click here:
Elizabeth Gilbert - The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com.
Jo got the complete set — THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in hardcover AND paperback…
Jo got the complete set — THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in hardcover AND paperback! Thanks, lovey!
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How could I not? Congrats on SOAT in paperback today!
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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June 24, 2014
TODAY!!!! Today today today today today today today TODAY!!! The gorgeous pape…
TODAY!!!!
Today today today today today today today TODAY!!!
The gorgeous paperback edition of THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS is published TODAY!!
If you would like to order a copy (or see reviews, or download the Reader's Guide — which is great for book clubs and super curious readers) you may click right here:
Elizabeth Gilbert - The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com.
June 23, 2014
I ADORE YOU GUYS… I was loving you up today on CBS This Morning. Thanks for…
I ADORE YOU GUYS…
I was loving you up today on CBS This Morning.
Thanks for the sweetness of this community!
Onward!
LG
Author Elizabeth Gilbert on unexpected intimacy of social media
www.cbsnews.com
The bestselling author of "The Signature of All Things" and "Eat, Pray, Love" shares how her connection with readers has changed since joining Facebook and Twitter.
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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One of the best proverbs ever invented. A friend of this page asked the other da…
One of the best proverbs ever invented. A friend of this page asked the other day how to deal with difficult people, and I was reminded of this line: "Not my circus, not my monkeys" — a beautiful and witty way to say, "Those problems simply do not belong to me."
(I also love imagining the context in which you would say this — watching a completely deranged monkey disrupt a completely disorderly circus…all the while, you just sit there calmly eating your cotton candy…)
So let it go, dear ones. Walk away.
We all have plenty to take care of, as it is, managing our own circus, our own monkeys…
Big, big love!
LG
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TOMORROW!!!! Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow! The paperback o…
TOMORROW!!!!
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow!
The paperback of THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS is coming, dear ones!
TOMORROW!!!
And if you want to come see me on book tour, click here for details:
TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Liz
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June 22, 2014
A line from THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS…pursuant to this morning’s post about…
A line from THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS…pursuant to this morning's post about women, resilience, and transformation!
LG
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WISDOM & AGE & WOMEN Dear Ones — The other day, someone asked me why I had ded…
WISDOM & AGE & WOMEN
Dear Ones —
The other day, someone asked me why I had dedicated THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS to my grandmother. The simple answer, of course, is that I love her!
The more complete answer is because she turned 100 years old around the time I finished my book, and I wanted to honor her with my novel — especially because so much of my book is about the wisdom of women, and the wisdom of age.
In writing this novel, I very deliberately chose to tell the story of a heroine who does not come into her own power until she is close to 50 years old — and whose wisdom only grows from that point forward. I not only felt this would be an interesting story to tell, I felt it would be ACCURATE. My experience has taught me that middle-age is when women really come into themselves. Of course, popular culture does not always celebrate this reality. So many novels and movies about women celebrate only the youth and beauty of our heroines — as if to to suggest that youth is the most valuable time in a woman's life (perhaps even the ONLY valuable time in a woman's life) and that we are at our most interesting when we are at our most young and pretty.
With all respect to the flower of youth, I beg to disagree. None of the most interesting women I know are 19 years old. (Though some of the 19 year olds I know are extremely cool and promising, and I predict that some of them will become interesting — VERY interesting — as time goes on…. they aren't quite there yet. Nor should they be.)
The women whom I most admire in the world are those who have lived long and survived much. They have been through love, amazement, loss, catastrophe, sorrow. Most of all, though, they have been through DISAPPOINTMENT — and they have each individually found a way to live through it. Not only have they lived through disappointment; they came out on the other side much stronger as a result, having earned perspective, endurance, and wisdom through their trials.
One of the biggest misconceptions about women is that we cannot survive disappointment. Now, clearly this is not true — or else there would not be a woman left alive in the world, right? (Am I right, ladies? Can I get an amen? Hell yeah!)
Because who among us — after a certain number of years of existence — has not been terribly disappointed? By love, by loss, by pain, by life itself?
Yet we are still here. Still here, and, if anything, stronger as we get older. Stronger for all that we have passed through. This is the truth that all the greatest old women know, deep in their bones.
All the big tragic novels written about women (especially novels written about women by men) suggest that women are inevitably destroyed by our disappointments — especially by the disappointments of love. Our poor fragile hearts are broken once, and we are ruined forever. (As much as I love Charles Dickens, he's a terribly guilty proponent of this notion — just look at Miss Havisham, who gets stood up by her lover and then shuts herself away in her wedding dress forever, only to burn to death in a tragic inferno after having suffered through a life of rage and madness. Thanks, Charles, we love you, but…no. We're actually a little bit better at coping with life than that…)
I didn't want Alma Whittaker to be that sort of character. I wanted her to be like the real women I know in the real world — women who have the secret superpower of taking their disappointments, and (using some kind of magical alchemy of infinite grace) turning them into wisdom.
The women whom I love and admire for their strength and grace did not get that way because shit worked out. They got that way because shit went wrong, and they handled it. They handled it in a thousand different ways on a thousand different days, but they handled it.
Those women are my superheroes. This is who I modeled Alma Whittaker upon.
My grandmother (who is now 101 and a HALF!) is just such a woman. She is wise and powerful and beautiful and tough as hell. She did not get that way because things always went in her favor. She will tell you that she has lived a lucky life (because she is a stubbornly upward-looking person) but she has been through unbelievable difficulties. The world was not a wish-fulfiling tree for her, but a trial — and she rose to it magnificently. She is still rising to it.
So that's why I dedicated my book to her. And why I want to be like her when I grow up.
Onward,
LG
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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in Norwegian…Takk skal du ha!
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in Norwegian…Takk skal du ha!
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Just finished in Norwegian! Loved it! Thank you Elizabeth!
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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in Montreal! Merci!
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in Montreal! Merci!
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The vacations are almost there, I'll finally have time to finish your amazing book!
Have good day, from Montreal.
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