Jessamyn West Quotes about Writing

Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.

Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.

Courage, Writing, Helpful

Jessamyn West (1986). “Woman Said Yes: Encounters with Life and Death”, Harcourt on Demand

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.

Jessamyn West

Friendship, Being Alone, Writing

Jessamyn West (1973). “Hide and Seek: A Continuing Journey”, Harcourt

One can write out of love or hate. Hate tells one a great deal about a person. Love makes one become the person. Love, contrary to legend, is not half as blind, at least for writing purposes, as hate. Love can see the evil and not cease to be love. Hate cannot see the good and remain hate. The writer, writing out of hatred, will, thus, paint a far more partial picture than if he had written out of love.

Jessamyn West

Hate, Writing, Evil

Jessamyn West (1957). “To see the dream”

There is no royal path to good writing; and such paths as exist do not lead through neat critical gardens, various as they are, but through the jungles of self, the world, and of craft.

Jessamyn West

Writing, Garden, Self

Writing is so difficult that I feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter.

Jessamyn West

Writing, Punishment, Earth

To See the Dream ch. 1 (1957)

Faithfulness to the past can be a kind of death above ground. Writing of the past is a resurrection; the past then lives in your words and you are free.

Jessamyn West

Writing, Past, Kind

Jessamyn West Quotes about Writing

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