Peter Elbow famous quotes

Writing with voice is writing into which someone has breathed. It has that fluency, rhythm, and liveliness that exist naturally in the speech of most people when they are enjoying a conversation...Writing with real voice has the power to make you pay attention and understand --the words go deep.
-- Peter Elbow

#Real #Writing #Voice

Producing writing is not so much like filling a basin or pool once, but rather getting water to keep flowing through till finally it runs clear.
-- Peter Elbow

#Running #Writing #Water

It's an unnecessary burden to try to think of words and also worry at the same time whether they're the right words.
-- Peter Elbow

#Thinking #Worry #Trying

It is the moment when what was chaos is now seen as having a center of gravity. There is a shape where a moment ago there was none.
-- Peter Elbow

#Shapes #Chaos #Moments

Everyone agrees in theory that we can't judge a new idea or point of view unless we enter into it and try it out, but the practice itself is rare.
-- Peter Elbow

#Practice #Ideas #Views

Certainty is rarely if ever possible and we increase the likelihood of getting things wrong if we succumb to the hunger for it.
-- Peter Elbow

#Hunger #Increase #Certainty

Meaning is not what you start with, but what you end up with.
-- Peter Elbow

#Clarity #Ends #Communicate

The question for writing then is this: how long are you willing to be unheard?
-- Peter Elbow

#Writing #Long #Willing

The whole bible is the working out of the relationship between God and man. God is not a dictator barking out orders and demanding silent obedience. Were it so, there would be no relationship at all. No real relationship goes just one way. There are always two active parties. We must have reverence and awe for God, and honor for the chain of tradition. But that doesn't mean we can't use new information to help us read the holy texts in new ways.

A loud noise will get your fight-or-flight response going. This, over the years, can cause real cardiovascular damage.

Subtle, funny and touching, with a striking downbeat authenticity. Director Craig Zobel is the real thing.

I want to be a real artist to consumers. I want to be the real thing for them.

My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.

He [Hemingway] used a stand-up work place he had fashioned out of the top of of a bookcase near his bed. His portable typewriter was snugged in there and papers were spread along the top of the bookcase on either side of it. He used a reading board for longhand writing.

I had casually rented an apartment that cost $75 a month because I expected my writing to pay my way.

I love the voice - it’s the most perfect instrument ever heard. It’s God given.

My voice is the only material thing in which I can still reveal myself. Go ahead and cut off the hand or the testicles of a voice. Try to find the head of a voice, the orifice through which it passes, or even the breasts to which you can attach the clips of your electrodes. Nothing. Resonant tooth.

But understand that I want to remain alone, truly alone, so I can precede my face, my voice, my hell without anyone telling me which is the best path, without anyone laughing at the giant's wings and the dwarf's legs that impede my gait.