Authors:

Peter Elbow Quotes

Meaning is not what you start with, but what you end up with.

Meaning is not what you start with, but what you end up with.

Peter Elbow
Clarity, Ends, Communicate

It's an unnecessary burden to try to think of words and also worry at the same time whether they're the right words.

Peter Elbow
Thinking, Worry, Trying
Peter Elbow (1998). “Writing without Teachers”, p.5, Oxford University Press

Producing writing is not so much like filling a basin or pool once, but rather getting water to keep flowing through till finally it runs clear.

Peter Elbow
Running, Writing, Water
Peter Elbow (1998). “Writing without Teachers”, p.52, Oxford University Press

Writing with voice is writing into which someone has breathed. It has that fluency, rhythm, and liveliness that exist naturally in the speech of most people when they are enjoying a conversation...Writing with real voice has the power to make you pay attention and understand --the words go deep.

Peter Elbow
Real, Writing, Voice

It is the moment when what was chaos is now seen as having a center of gravity. There is a shape where a moment ago there was none.

Peter Elbow
Shapes, Chaos, Moments
Peter Elbow (1998). “Writing without Teachers”, p.57, Oxford University Press

The question for writing then is this: how long are you willing to be unheard?

Peter Elbow
Writing, Long, Willing
Peter Elbow (1998). “Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process”, p.211, Oxford University Press

Everyone agrees in theory that we can't judge a new idea or point of view unless we enter into it and try it out, but the practice itself is rare.

Peter Elbow
Views, Practice, Ideas

Certainty is rarely if ever possible and we increase the likelihood of getting things wrong if we succumb to the hunger for it.

Peter Elbow
Hunger, Increase, Certainty
Peter Elbow (1986). “Embracing contraries: explorations in learning and teaching”, Oxford University Press, USA

You May Also Like: