The Roughest Draft Quotes

“...sometimes relationships don't die. They just don't grow. Kept from sunlight, from nourishment, they never flourish.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“Fiction comes from truth. It is a wonderful, imaginative, flourishing thing grown from a seed of real feelings, real desires, real fears. No artist ever creates from nothing. We work from what we've experienced, inspired by the unique piece of the world we see. It's why art cannot be replicated.”
― Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“Never leaving someone isn't the same as loving them.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“There's no truth to these pages, but the trick of fiction is to make you think there is. I let myself fall for it as often as I can.”
― Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“Forever is about reaching into the future, into years far away and unknowable. Always is about every second of every day. It's as far reaching as forever, it just starts sooner.”
― Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“We've written the rough draft of our love together, the draft with loose ends, unfinished edges, mistakes every other page. But every writer knows there's magic in revision, where your work changes from a manuscript into a book. Where intentions, emotions, missed connections coalesce into something complete. It's where what you mean to say becomes what you have said. The characters deepen, the details shine, the prose sparkles. Suddenly, from nothing, you find your story.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“She smiles, and my heart ignites.”
― Emily Wibberley, Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“Reading and loving books are the fingerprints of who I am—no matter how much I change, they'll stay the same, betraying me to myself for the rest of my life.”
― Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“...in the end, the best part of a love story isn't having it. It's getting to keep writing.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“think it’s possible for people we love to quietly, even unknowingly, snap some tether holding us together.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“Honestly, I think every single word I’ve written since the day I met you has in some way been leading up to this. To you. To say you changed my life is the kind of understatement I could never permit myself to put in writing—you changed my entire world. You reached inside me with your words and your stories and wrote yourself onto my own soul. Before you, I was whole. I was one being, one heart. Now, I’m half of everything and greater for it.

I’m in love with you. I know we can’t be together. Not yet. But if you tell me you feel even remotely the same way, then we will. Maybe you’ve never considered it, but I find it hard to believe that my feelings, screaming in my head night and day, leaking into my writing with a vulnerability that would embarrass me if your eyes weren’t the ones reading them, sound only like a whisper to you.”
― Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“But with Katrina—was it romantic when you instinctively knew someone’s very existence fascinated you, made you grateful? Finding it romantic would be missing the point, like valuing the sun because it was bright. I’m glad for the light, but really, I’m grateful for the fact it sustains life on Earth. Not that Katrina sustains my life on Earth. I— No. Inelegant metaphor. It’s over with Katrina.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“Of course I love him. I have novel's worth of what I want to say.”
― Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“I want to say she's gorgeous. Heart-stopping. If I started, I don't know how I would stop. I've worked my entire adult life to marshal the English language into whatever I wanted. But were I try to capture Katrina with it, it would best even me.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“I would risk dying of thirst to save myself from drowning.”
― Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“Today isn’t your entire life. Today is one day of your job. Do your job the best you can, then do the next thing. Okay?”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“It can be both. Fiction is fiction, and it's real. They're not opposites. They live within each other.”
― Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“It’s funny how people can sit side by side, separate whirlwinds each self-contained.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“Writing is where our--where everyone's--purest truths lie. On the page, thoughts and feelings can be expressed without interference, without ineloquences or fear or fumbling. There's no room for turning back or losing your nerve. Only one thing remains--what you want to communicate.”
― Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“For years, I was trying so hard to want only the things I thought were safe enough to have. But it wasn’t wanting, I’ve realized. It was hiding. Hiding from myself, from what my heart craved so desperately it terrified me.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“I’ve realized a life lived with you is the best story I could ever tell.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“There's not truth to these pages, but the trick of fiction is to make you think there is. I let myself fall for it as often as I can.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“No matter how much success you've had, insecurity is never far from reach when you're being judged on pieces of your soul.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“Fiction comes from truth.”
― Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“The true, true horror, the one seemingly no one realizes but me, is that once you have your dreams, all you have left is the chance to lose them. It's inevitable.”
― Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Roughest Draft

“I learned sometimes relationships don’t die. They just don’t grow. Kept from sunlight, from nourishment, they never flourish.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“was it romantic when you instinctively knew someone’s very existence fascinated you, made you grateful? Finding it romantic would be missing the point, like valuing the sun because it was bright. I’m glad for the light, but really, I’m grateful for the fact it sustains life on Earth.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“Here’s what you really don’t want to hear,” he goes on. “What we have is a fairy tale. It is a dream come true. And it’s imperfect. I wish you could understand it can be both. Fiction is fiction and it’s real. They’re not opposites. They live within each other.” His voice is raw, his expression naked. While anger is the fire in him, I recognize pain is the kindling. “The worst part is, I think you love me, too. I think you know we’re soul mates. But we’ll never be together as long as you’re afraid of your own happiness.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“presence. Once in Italy, needing two hours of not talking to each other, we went to the movies, not realizing there wouldn’t be subtitles. We stayed and enjoyed the cinematography. On the walk home, we pitched each other ridiculous ideas to fill the gaps in the plot we hadn’t understood. Those weren’t dates, though. Dates hold intention. They’re not just occasions—they’re declarations. I’m interested”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft

“I don’t make a habit of drawing inspiration from real people’s physical characteristics. Katrina is the exception. I can’t help reaching for her hands, her eyes, her smile when writing.”
― Emily Wibberley, The Roughest Draft