Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

calling

• Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

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• Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper.

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work-as-meaning

• Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.

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• Writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around. Writing taught my father to pay attention.

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self-and-identity

• Awareness is learning to keep yourself company. And then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage.

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• There was a moment during my junior year when I began to believe that I could do what other writers were doing—that I might make something magical happen.

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