John Dufresne Quotes

Quotes about:

• The universe may be tenderly indifferent to our fate, but we shouldn’t be. We are our brothers’ keepers. There is right, and there is wrong. There are consequences to our actions or inactions. Disregard can be an act of violence.

  John Dufresne

  Brother, Fate, May

  John Dufresne (2014). “No Regrets, Coyote”, p.78, Serpent's Tail

  46 Copy quote

• The purpose of the first draft is not to get it right, but to get it written.

  John Dufresne

  Purpose, Firsts, Written

  4 Copy quote

• Reading honest literature makes you love the world. Knowledge and understanding are love. Reading educates our feelings and enhances our sympathy. When you read for understanding, you are fundamentally changed. You are a different person at the end of the story or the novel than you were when it began.

  John Dufresne

  Reading, Understanding, Feelings

  14 Copy quote

• Revision is not the end of the creative process, but a new beginning. It's a chance not just to clean up and edit, but to open up and discover. The energetic prose comes about from all the energy that went into crafting it, I suppose.

  John Dufresne

  New Beginnings, Creative, Energy

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• A lack of narrative structure, as you know, will cause anxiety.

  John Dufresne

  Narrative Structure, Anxiety, Causes

  John Dufresne (2014). “No Regrets, Coyote”, p.7, Serpent's Tail

  4 Copy quote

• Novels are written, not wished into existence. You have to sit your ass in the chair or nothing gets done.

  John Dufresne

  Writing, Done, Ass

  John Dufresne (2010). “Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months”, p.15, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• Pleasure is, after all, a luxury. It's love that's essential.

  John Dufresne

  Luxury, Essentials, Pleasure

  4 Copy quote

• Writing a story, you understand, is not done by consensus. But we do learn from each other, and we remind ourselves how important this work we're doing is.

  John Dufresne

  Writing, Important, Stories

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Love is anticipation and memory, uncertainty and longing. It’s unreasonable, of course. Nothing begins with so much excitement and hope and pleasure as love, except maybe writing a story. And nothing fails as often, except writing stories. And like a story, love must be troubled to be interesting.

  John Dufresne

  Memories, Writing, Love Is

  John Dufresne (2008). “Love Warps the Mind a Little: A Novel”, p.140, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• Love is always a surprise and you never get it right.

  John Dufresne

  Love Is, Surprise

  4 Copy quote

• A pure love is a selfless love, but can desire ever be selfless?

  John Dufresne

  Love Is, Desire, Selfless

  5 Copy quote

• As a writer you can and should expect to hear conflicting responses to your story.

  John Dufresne

  Stories, Should, Response

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• You will feel discouraged; you will lose confidence in your abilities; you will be bored with the characters–and the only way to overcome these obstacles is to write your way through them. And writing always works.

  John Dufresne

  Writing, Character, Bored

  4 Copy quote

• You can't possibly conduct a proper affair without a lot of deliberating, scheming, speculating, and conniving. It's a delicate balance where the excitement must equal the guilt and sex must be as bright as the future you gamble.

  John Dufresne

  Sex, Balance, Guilt

  John Dufresne (2008). “Love Warps the Mind a Little: A Novel”, p.6, W. W. Norton & Company

  7 Copy quote

• You lose a wallet or keys or something and you notice in a second, but your life can go missing and you don't even know it.

  John Dufresne

  Keys, Missing, Wallets

  John Dufresne (2008). “Love Warps the Mind a Little: A Novel”, p.13, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• The facts, however, are unimportant in fiction. It's not the events of my life that I mine, but the emotional experiences I've had.

  John Dufresne

  Emotional, Events, Fiction

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• We read novels because we need stories; we crave them; we can’t live without telling them and hearing them. Stories are how we make sense of our lives and of the world. When we’re distressed and go to therapy, our therapist’s job is to help us tell our story. Life doesn’t come with plots; it’s messy and chaotic; life is one damn, inexplicable thing after another. And we can’t have that. We insist on meaning. And so we tell stories so that our lives make sense.

  John Dufresne

  Jobs, Plot, Needs

  John Dufresne (2010). “Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months”, p.277, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• I used to believe that love and happiness were synonymous. I was a fool. Love intensifies all emotions. Nothing is so painful o so sweet, so thrilling or so desperate... Pleasure is, after all, a luxury. It's love thats essential. You are never so alive as when you love, never so alert, intuitive, attentive, never so smart or so compassionate.

  John Dufresne

  Sweet, Smart, Believe

  4 Copy quote

• Every person in therapy has a love disorder.

  John Dufresne

  Disorder, Therapy, Persons

  John Dufresne (2008). “Love Warps the Mind a Little: A Novel”, p.140, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• Place is character. And all writing is regional.

  John Dufresne

  Writing, Character

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Every act of loving affirms the goodness of the lover just because he is capable of loving and being loved.

  John Dufresne

  Lovers, Goodness, Capable

  John Dufresne (2008). “Love Warps the Mind a Little: A Novel”, p.199, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• We all sleep with the corpses of our dead lovers.

  John Dufresne

  Sleep, Lovers, Corpses

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Fiction begins with the senses, and the senses go to work in a place.

  John Dufresne

  Fiction, Senses

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• It's easier to write about a place sometimes when you've left it, when you can apply your imagination to your memory and let your emotions guide the writing about a place.

  John Dufresne

  Memories, Writing, Imagination

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• The landscape of childhood shapes us as it shapes the characters in our stories. You never forget the sacred places of your childhood.

  John Dufresne

  Character, Childhood, Stories

  Source: therumpus.net

  5 Copy quote

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