Minds are like parachutes. They work best when open.

–Thomas Dewar

“The author’s task is to synchronize thoughts, images, raw creative material in a meaningful way, a task as difficult and frantic and joyful as herding cats.”

—Brandon Dorn

“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.”

—Georgia O’Keefe (via Crazyhorse Journal)

“Everything I learned about human nature I learned from me.”

—Chekhov (via Crazyhorse Journal)

“I believe in words. I believe that words are little gods. I believe that books are bibles.”

—Marcel Pomerlo (via Crazyhorse Journal)

“Truth is not an unveiling which destroys the secret, but a revelation that does it justice.”

—Walter Benjamin
(via Crazyhorse Journal)

“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”

—Charles Bukowski

(for this and other recent quotes, thanks to Crazyhorse Journal)

“Writing is finally a series of permissions you give yourself to be expressive in certain ways. To leap. To fly. To fail.”

—Susan Sontag

“Always pull back—and see how silly we must look to God.”

—Jack Kerouac

“Writing is easy. You just sit down at the typewriter and open a vein.”

—Red Smith

(On reflection, not sure if this is inspirational or scary. But I like the quote.)