"If you don't know what to do, there's actually a chance of doing something new. As long as you know what you're doing, nothing much of interest is going to happen."
–– Philip Glass (b. 1937), American composer and musician
via: Commonplace Book 2024, p. 29.
"Fiction writing is often an excuse for me to pursue various curiosities I have. And curiosity is really just a form of love: "Are you curious?" is another way of asking, "Are you in love with the world?" In my own work, projects always start with something I get really interested in, like whale standings or insects or venomous snails, or hibernating animals or snowflakes. The research is often the kernel, and I start writing around it; building it out into a spiral sort of, trying to find a character who I can use –– often I go for the most obvious thing, which is to infect the character with the same kind of interest I have (e.g., the shell collector). So when young writers ask for advice, not that I'm qualified to give any, I usually say that part of writing is finding the things in the world that you care the most about, that you care so deeply about you'd never get tired of reading or writing about them, and make those your subjects. For me it has been wonder –– what wonder is, where can we find it. For someone else it might be skateboards, or jazz, or bipolar disorder, or whatever. If you care deeply enough about something, some of that interest and passion will (hopefully) transfer through the page to the reader."
–– Anthony Doerr, American writer
Source: Austin Kleon Tumblr, Friday July 26, 2024.
via: Commonplace Book, 2022-2024, 2024, p. 189-190.
"I think it's so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary –– you're happy for an instant and they you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous."
–– Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), American artist
