Keely

“I have sometimes told people, probably wrongly, that there’s no point in writing at all if you don’t feel that there’s something you absolutely have to explore. The idea that someone may want ‘to be a writer’ but have no idea of what to write is quite paradoxical, in one way. After all, why write things down if you don’t have a burning desire to communicate something? But actually, most people who want to write do have things to communicate, they just don’t necessarily know what they are yet. I have themes and ideas in my mind constantly, as do many other people. I care about things in the world and I want to express this somehow. Part of becoming a writer is working out which of all the strange thoughts you have in a given day are worth exploring further.”
― Scarlett Thomas, Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories

“confession of effort chafes against the notion that empathy should always rise unbidden, that genuine means the same thing as unwilled, that intentionality is the enemy of love. But I believe in intention and I believe in work. I believe in waking up in the middle of the night and packing our bags and leaving our worst selves for our better ones.”
― Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams

“I realize that some people will not believe that a child of little more than ten years is capable of having such feelings. My story is not intended for them. I am telling it to those who have a better knowledge of man. The adult who has learned to translate a part of his feelings into thoughts notices the absence of these thoughts in a child, and therefore comes to believe that the child lacks these experiences, too. Yet rarely in my life have I felt and suffered as deeply as at that time.”
― Hermann Hesse, Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend

“This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love