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Need a Dose of Inspiration?
 Posted by Liz Talley Nov 18 2011, 12:00 am in Honest Tea, inspiration, liz talley, NaNoWriMo inspiration We got you covered! Maybe NaNo is kicking your butt. Or perhaps spiffing up your entry for the Golden Heart has you seeing double. Or it could be your WIP is whipping you. No matter how you stack it, sometimes you need a shot of inspiration to keep you trucking toward your goal. I love inspirational quotations. Often I eat at a cafe that carries the brand Honest Tea, and beneath the cap of each bottle of tea is an inspirational quote. So I’ve listed some of my favorite ones below to serve as a bit of inspiration to you as you contemplate your writing…and life in general. Now your job is to add to the list by submitting your favorite quote in the posts. Can’t wait to see what new advice is waiting for me at the end of today. Okay, let’s play - The way see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain – Dolly Parton The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with. – Marty Feldman If we don’t change the direction we are headed, we will end up where we are going. – Chinese Proverb To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time – Leonard Bernstein Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (For all you who are editing!) If you’re going through hell, keep going. – Winston Churchhill If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. – Van Gogh (Let’s change “paint” to “write” and we’ve got a winner!) Never be afraid to try something new. Remember amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic. – Unknown You can’t change the wind; you can, however, adjust your sails. - Unknown Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison (This is my favorite!) Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. – Robert Kennedy Hey, I don’t know who “Unknown” is, but he or she is pretty smart.
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So what have you got?
Thank you so much – today I DEFINITELY needed inspiration. A little shot in the arm to tell me I should keep going. This was perfect!
It’s Un Kno Wn a hermit who spends her summers in the Antarctic and winters in the Arctic.
If things don’t go your way –change your way. -Me
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. -Eleanor Roosevelt
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.- Paul Valery
“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.” – J.K. Rowling
“Others can stop you temporarily – you are the only one who can do it permanently.” – Zig Ziglar
forgot one
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.
-Eleanor Roosevelt-
Love that quote about the ark and the titantic!
Here are a couple of folk music faves:
“I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” — Bob Dylan
“To reach the highest places, you have to fall.” — Peter Mayer
OK – I LOVE this one:
To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time – Leonard Bernstein
What a great post, Liz – VERY encouraging!!!
Addison
That’s the story of my life right now.
“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe them, and try to follow where they lead.” Louisa May Alcott
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” – greeting card at Whole Foods / mug at Barnes & Noble
This one makes me cry every time I see it and I’m not 100% why. I do love it though.
“Each no is one no closer to a yes.” Words from my sensei after I told him about a rejection.
“All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”
- Walt Disney
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
- Winston Churchill
Eileen, These are great. I really don’t like the kicks to the teeth though! But I’ll try to remember they’re good for me.
Here are some–I love quotes:
‘At any given moment you have the power to say This is Not How the Story Will End’ anon
‘I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.’ Van Gogh
And one I keep on my blog:
“When you help someone up a hill, you get that much closer to the top yourself.” anon
What a great collection of quotes! Esp. love the Dolly Parton and Leonard Bernstein ones.
Right now, since I’m in draft mode, I keep telling myself
“Inch by inch, anything’s a cinch.” Gotta write a little each day and it will all come together. (I hope.)
Ooooh, I forgot this E.L. Doctorow quote:
“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
And from the ever wonderful Anne Lamott:
“You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won’t really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we’ll figure out a way to divert the ocean. This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won’t wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.”
Great quotes, Liz.
I’m getting all sorts of inspiration.
Here’s one of my favorites: “Information is not knowledge.” Frank Zappa.
Thanks!
Some great quotes there – Van Gogh’s is one I’ve already passed on to one of my writing groups as we’ve had some stellar rejections received of late.
I have a wall full of quotes in my office – love collecting them.
Top on the list is this one:
“Believe in yourself
and there will come a day
when others will have no choice
but to believe in you.”
(Cynthia Kersey)
Another couple:
“Success is the child of perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed. Pay the price and it is yours.”
(Orson Swett Marden)
“Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving,
and the fitting of the together, like the fitting of stone,
demands great patience and strength of purpose.”
(Edmund Morrrison)
And lastly:
“This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don’t consider it rejected. Consider that you’ve addressed it ‘to the editor who can appreciate my work’ and it has simply come back stamped ‘not at this address’.
(Barbara Kingsolver)
This is my all-time favorite quote about theatre. It changed how I approached acting. I think it is applicable to great writing, too.
“It is necessary if one is to depict reality, not only to depict why a man does what he does or why he nearly didn’t do it, but why he simply cannot walk away and say to hell with it.” Arthur Miller
And of course…
“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love” Einstein
Who doesn’t love that one? So cute.
Fun post again, Rubies. Thx for the break!
Hi there, Liz! Thank you for providing one-stop shopping for inspiration!
Sometimes I *really* need to read and re-read and read over again the following quotes:
Steve Martin said, “I’ve always wanted to be an author and be published. I figured the way to do that was write a book.”
R. D. Clyde said, “It’s amazing how long it takes to complete something you’re not working on.”
Thanks for the quotes, everyone!
-Kathy
I’m a little late getting here today, but I loved the quotes. I have two I’d like to share:
“Nothing’s a better cure for writer’s block than to eat ice cream right out of the carton.”
― Don Roff
“I cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from passing over my head, but I can keep them from building a nest in my hair.” – I believe this is a variation of a Chinese proverb.
Oh, I love these!!!! Thanks for this, Liz.
One of my favs:
Fairy tales are more than true:
not because they tell us that dragons exist,
but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
-G.K. Chesterton
One more!
“The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.” Flannery O’Connor
I had such a crazy day on Friday, I stopped by and read this post (which is great!) but didn’t have time to leave a quote…the only one I could call to mind at the time was Winston Churchill’s “When you’re going through hell….keep going!”
These were all great, gals, and I appreciate your posting them. Need to have this post handy for times when I feel like I can’t possibly move forward.
Sorry I’m so late checking back…like kinda got in the way
Um, that would be “Life.”