A Quote by Laura van den Berg

My students are often asking me, 'What do you think are the most important qualities for a writer?' And one thing I always tells them is that it's helpful to be willing to sit in a space of uncertainty. There are entire years, especially with novels, where you really don't know where the project is going.

Laura van den Berg

Quote Topics

Always Asking Entire Going Helpful Important Know Me Most Novels Often One Thing Project Qualities Really Sit Space Students Tells The Most Important Them Thing Think Uncertainty Willing Writer Years

Quote Author

Laura van den Berg
American - Writer
Born: 1983

As a young boy, I read 'Cheaper by the Dozen' and immediately became neurotic about my use of time. It taxed me severely, but only for the next 50 years. But I think it also allowed me to discipline myself to sit in the chair and be a writer, where one of the most needed qualities is patience.

Ridley Pearson

There's always going to be the cooler-clubbers who are going to harvest a lot of fish, but I think the hard-core bass fishermen release just about everything they catch these days. Years ago, I think people were willing to release smaller fish, but now I think they're willing to release them all, and that's the important part.

Philip K. Chapman

The biggest thing here in WWE is that if they see some really valuable qualities in you, they're really going to do their best to maximize them and put you into the scenarios and into the situations where that's going to make the most impact. For me, they've definitely done that.

Samoa Joe

What's cool is when people send me messages or tag me in their photos, which definitely happens more after a project comes out. The best part, I think, is that the DMs and tags are always from young girls, and reaching them is the most important thing for me.

Petra Collins

Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there's a big difference between being a writer and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at the typewriter. You've got to want to write, I say to them, not want to be a writer. The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune, there are thousands more whose longing is never requited. Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did.

Alex Haley

The thing I always tell my writing students - I'm not a full-time instructor, by any means, but periodically I've taught writing students - what I always tell them is that the most important thing in narrative nonfiction is that you not only have to have all the research; you have to have about 100% more than you need.

Erik Larson

I really do think artists are the most important people on the planet, and if what I do is a utility and helps them, then that makes me happy. I want to be helpful.

Hans-Ulrich Obrist

I think most people think of ballerinas as kind of either as a fairytale, far-away thing that's really not attainable, something they can't grasp, or they think of them as European or Russian and kind of their nose up in the air. So, it's cool for me to, like, sit with them and for them to really see themselves as me.

Misty Copeland

You can always know, when it comes to a Gucci Mane or Migos project, there is no such thing of them putting out a project without me being a part of it. These are guys that I'm really close with, and we built a sound together, and we got a certain chemistry.

Zaytoven

My generation those who were students in the late 60s was always, in the words of the Who, talking about our generation. That's what we thought of ourselves, as the most important thing since sliced bread. And the "we" that we meant was really the Western Europeans and American generation. And as I think back I suppose I have a sense of guilt on behalf of my generation, a sense that we were terribly provincial and didn't understand the really important stuff that was going on in Eastern Europe.

Tony Judt

Attitude is really important to me and I talk about that with the players. Often players don't realise that if they've missed out on selection, the most important thing is how they respond to that. Of course they're going to be really disappointed, but if they're positive they're really supportive of the rest of the team.

Warren Gatland

That's the other thing that you find most often with women. They're not really concerned about what's happened over the last four years. They really want to know what's going to happen in the next four years.

Stephanie Cutter

That's the most important thing for me, that when I use my qualities in this way and coming to the ball, it creates more space to be creative. I need to make these runs and be generous.

Divock Origi

I know this is going to sound really cheesy, but I have the coolest dad in the entire world. My dad is hilarious. He’s also strong, smart and makes me feel like he’s going to take care of everything. I think those are the qualities I look for in a boyfriend.

Lea Michele

I write very raw, ugly, illiterate first drafts very quickly (novels are always in first draft in under a year) and then I spend years and years fine-tuning, revising, editing, etc. What inspires me? Who knows. I am not inspired that much. That’s why I write long form fiction - I am not much of a short story writer. Ideas come seldom, but when a good one comes, I really stick to it and see it out. I’m a problem-solver - I've never thrown out an entire manuscript; I've always forced myself to repair it until it was a lovable thing again.