Jessamyn West Quotes
Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.

Quotes to Explore
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I love my work but do not know how I write it.
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Beethoven's importance in music has been principally defined by the revolutionary nature of his compositions. He freed music from hitherto prevailing conventions of harmony and structure.
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There is an expression now that is commonly used about these so-called internal conflicts which are not really internal, because they have connections to the outside world.
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Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.
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Even before it opened its retail arm, Beigh was renowned among pashmina cognoscenti for the quality and complexity of the work produced in its workshop, a large, airy, sunlit rectangle of a room directly across from its second-floor shop.
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When I'm writing the first draft, I'm writing in a very slovenly way: anything to get the outline of the story on paper.
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I saw hell. The hospital had divided and conquered pretty successfully.
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As a boy, my favorite show was 'Superman' and my favorite movie was 'Star Wars' - along with other science fiction shows and movies. And I always wanted to fly.
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I certainly don't have any boundaries myself, but I think I'm very aware of other people's.
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One thing is clear to me: We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.
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Pain is the most private experience, but its causes, whether natural or man-made, demand public accounting.
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For an introvert his environment is himself and can never be subject to startling or unforeseen change.
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I try to widen the horizons of every child I meet, and part of that is promoting diverse forms, be it graphic novels, stories told in a narrative voice, or more translated books, as well as more diverse writers and more diverse characters.
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Love your neighbor as yourself; but don't take down the fence.
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I hate when a guy brags... or he sweats.
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I always try to block out an hour or so a day to read. Being a writer is a job, and reading helps train my brain in the right direction.
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One individual can begin a movement that turns the tide of history. Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement, Mohandas Ganhi in India, Nelson Mandela in South Africa are examples of people standing up with courage and non-violence to bring about needed changes.
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Ultimately, education in its real sense is the pursuit of truth. It is an endless journey through knowledge and enlightenment.
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I stayed away from mathematics not so much because I knew it would be hard work as because of the amount of time I knew it would take, hours spent in a field where I was not a natural.
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I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.
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An English journalist called Michael Viney told me when I was 25, that I would write well if I cared a lot what I was writing about. That worked. I went home that day and wrote about parents not understanding their children as well as we teachers did, and it was published the very next week.
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Always good to have one crazy in the family ... It takes the pressure off everybody else.
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Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.