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Tobias Wolff Quotes

I love Chekhov. I could go on all day about him Picture Quote #1

I teach one semester a year, and this year I’m just teaching one course during that semester, a writing workshop for older students in their late 20s and early 30s, people in our graduate program who are already working on a manuscript and trying to bring it to completion Picture Quote #1

The reader really has to step up to the plate and read a short story Picture Quote #1

And you can tell the writers who do it - robert Stone, for example, who with each new novel is doing something new. I appreciate that in other writers Picture Quote #1

Perhaps that is why the novel flourished in England. You had these communities that would stay put and people would see one another all the time and cause one another to change and have the opportunity to observe the changes over time Picture Quote #1

To be a writer you need to see things as they are, and to see things as they are you need a certain basic innocence Picture Quote #1

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I was giving up--being realistic, as people liked to say, meaning the same thing. Being realistic made me feel bitter Picture Quote #1

We are made to persist. that’s how we find out who we are Picture Quote #1

The human heart is a dark forest Picture Quote #1

You don’t teach information in a writing workshop Picture Quote #1

Want! You must want something. What do you want? Picture Quote #1

Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it Picture Quote #1

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The beauty of a fragment is that it still supports the hope of brilliant completeness Picture Quote #1

The very act of writing assumes, to begin with, that someone cares to hear what you have to say. It assumes that people share, that people can be reached, that people can be touched and even in some cases changed. So many of the things in our world lead us to despair. It seems to me that the final symptom of despair is silence, and that storytelling is one of the sustaining arts; it’s one of the affirming arts. A writer may have a certain pessimism in his outlook, but the very act of being a writer seems to me to be an optimistic act Picture Quote #1

One can imagine a world without essays. It would be a little poorer, of course, like a world without chess, but one could live in it Picture Quote #1

Real maturity is the ability to imagine the humanity of every person as fully as you believe in your own humanity Picture Quote #1

We each after a while have to become reconciled to what it is that our talents and appetites lead us to Picture Quote #1

Writers cannot let themselves be servants of the official mythology. They have to, whatever the cost, say what truth they have to say Picture Quote #1

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What writers do is they tell their own story constantly through other people’s stories. They imagine other people, and those other people are carrying the burden of their struggles, their questions about themselves Picture Quote #1

Anybody can be very destructive in that position without at all meaning to be, and I know that I have been inadvertently destructive in the past for certain people on certain occasions Picture Quote #1

Because the more you write the more you’re aware of the weight of your tradition and the difficulties of the form and the more you have already done that you do not want to do again Picture Quote #1

Most of us don’t live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented Picture Quote #1

That, for me, is a very important test of a young writer’s commitment because most of them are going to have to continue doing that when they’ve finished the program Picture Quote #1

When I was about 14 or 15 I decided to become a writer and never for a moment since have I wanted to do anything else Picture Quote #1

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You have to be kind of clued into them, they are a world of their own, and most people find them disappointing because the best short stories are not constructed like novels Picture Quote #1

I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem to me to be perhaps closer in spirit to poetry than to novels Picture Quote #1

Because I don’t have to be careful of people’s feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I’m teaching writing Picture Quote #1

Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order Picture Quote #1

I teach one semester a year, and this year I’m just teaching one course during that semester, a writing workshop for older students in their late 20s and early 30s, people in our graduate program who are already working on a manuscript and trying to bring it to completion Picture Quote #1

I try to help people become the best possible editors of their own work, to help them become conscious of the things they do well, of the things they need to look at again, of the wells of material they have not even begun to dip their buckets into Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

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Text Quotes

I love Chekhov. I could go on all day about him (Tobias Wolff Quotes) I teach one semester a year, and this year I’m just teaching one course during that semester, a writing workshop for older students in their late 20s and early 30s, people in our graduate program who are already working on a manuscript and trying to bring it to completion. (Tobias Wolff Quotes) The reader really has to step up to the plate and read a short story (Tobias Wolff Quotes) And you can tell the writers who do it - robert Stone, for example, who with each new novel is doing something new. I appreciate that in other writers (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Perhaps that is why the novel flourished in England. You had these communities that would stay put and people would see one another all the time and cause one another to change and have the opportunity to observe the changes over time (Tobias Wolff Quotes) To be a writer you need to see things as they are, and to see things as they are you need a certain basic innocence. (Tobias Wolff Quotes) I was giving up--being realistic, as people liked to say, meaning the same thing. Being realistic made me feel bitter. (Tobias Wolff Quotes) We are made to persist. that’s how we find out who we are (Tobias Wolff Quotes) The human heart is a dark forest (Tobias Wolff Quotes) You don’t teach information in a writing workshop (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Want! You must want something. What do you want? (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it (Tobias Wolff Quotes) The beauty of a fragment is that it still supports the hope of brilliant completeness (Tobias Wolff Quotes) The very act of writing assumes, to begin with, that someone cares to hear what you have to say. It assumes that people share, that people can be reached, that people can be touched and even in some cases changed. So many of the things in our world lead us to despair. It seems to me that the final symptom of despair is silence, and that storytelling is one of the sustaining arts; it’s one of the affirming arts. A writer may have a certain pessimism in his outlook, but the very act of being a writer seems to me to be an optimistic act (Tobias Wolff Quotes) One can imagine a world without essays. It would be a little poorer, of course, like a world without chess, but one could live in it (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Real maturity is the ability to imagine the humanity of every person as fully as you believe in your own humanity (Tobias Wolff Quotes) We each after a while have to become reconciled to what it is that our talents and appetites lead us to (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Writers cannot let themselves be servants of the official mythology. They have to, whatever the cost, say what truth they have to say (Tobias Wolff Quotes) What writers do is they tell their own story constantly through other people’s stories. They imagine other people, and those other people are carrying the burden of their struggles, their questions about themselves (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Anybody can be very destructive in that position without at all meaning to be, and I know that I have been inadvertently destructive in the past for certain people on certain occasions (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Because the more you write the more you’re aware of the weight of your tradition and the difficulties of the form and the more you have already done that you do not want to do again (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Most of us don’t live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented (Tobias Wolff Quotes) That, for me, is a very important test of a young writer’s commitment because most of them are going to have to continue doing that when they’ve finished the program (Tobias Wolff Quotes) When I was about 14 or 15 I decided to become a writer and never for a moment since have I wanted to do anything else (Tobias Wolff Quotes) You have to be kind of clued into them, they are a world of their own, and most people find them disappointing because the best short stories are not constructed like novels (Tobias Wolff Quotes) I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem to me to be perhaps closer in spirit to poetry than to novels (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Because I don’t have to be careful of people’s feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I’m teaching writing (Tobias Wolff Quotes) Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order (Tobias Wolff Quotes) I teach one semester a year, and this year I’m just teaching one course during that semester, a writing workshop for older students in their late 20s and early 30s, people in our graduate program who are already working on a manuscript and trying to bring it to completion (Tobias Wolff Quotes) I try to help people become the best possible editors of their own work, to help them become conscious of the things they do well, of the things they need to look at again, of the wells of material they have not even begun to dip their buckets into (Tobias Wolff Quotes)

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