"He [the writer] must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed — love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands."
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Novelists from the United StatesShort story writers from the United StatesPoets from the United StatesScreenwriters from the United StatesPlaywrights from the United States
Original Language: English
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William Faulkner
1897 – 1962
US-amerikanischer Schriftsteller
133 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William Faulkner →
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