14 Joanna Scott Quotes for You to Enjoy

Joanna Scott

American Author

Born: 1960

Lie Reality Time Words Work Writing

Related authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald Frederick Douglass Helen Keller Henry David Thoreau Joyce Meyer Mark Twain Og Mandino Zig Ziglar

When we really start searching for the truth in stories, we can find it everywhere, not just in sincere confessions but in the deliberate lies and imagined possibilities, the magic and fantasy, and all the other unreal elements that go into the concoction of identity. Joanna Scott

As children know, there's lots of fun in nonsense. We never stop benefiting from staying flexible, open and responsive, even in the midst of confusion. Joanna Scott

Confusion Benefiting Responsive Staying Never Open Never Stop Know Nonsense Lots Stop Children Midst Flexible Fun Even

Reviewers try to square the antics of a writer's life with the antics in the fiction. Even satirical verbal play is too often read and admired as autobiographical expression. And thanks to the democratic exposures of the web, it's easier than ever to document private experiences and divulge the most intimate secrets. Joanna Scott

Life Try Thanks Too Intimate Secrets Easier Admired Web Writer Most Democratic Document Read Verbal Private Reviewers Square Than Often Autobiographical Experiences Fiction Even Satirical Expression Ever Play

'Out of Africa,' Dinesen's second book, is a love story, though not the one portrayed by Streep and Redford in the film. The memoir is about Dinesen's love of East Africa - the cultures, the landscapes, the animals. The feeling that saturates the book is reverence. Joanna Scott

Love Book Animals Feeling Love Story Though East Out Memoir About Reverence Cultures Africa Story Landscapes Film Second Portrayed

I don't think Donald Barthelme would have minded being called a confusing writer. Confusion was a favorite subject for him in his essays and reviews, and it's enacted in his fiction in a mishmash of dizzying incongruities. Joanna Scott

Confusion Think Minded Favorite Would Writer Him His Subject Reviews Donald Essays Being Fiction Confusing

If the rules of a language are followed, words usually make sense. But these very rules can stir the impulse to rebel. We're obliged to keep trying to convey meaning through correct sentences. After a while, the good-soldier rigidity of polished prose can begin to seem dull, and it gets harder to resist the temptation of nonsense. Joanna Scott

Words Language Sense Correct Rules Rigidity Followed Seem Temptation Obliged Through Prose Make Polished Nonsense Dull Stir Very Begin Trying Gets Impulse After While Convey Meaning Sentences Rebel Keep Harder Resist

I feel there has to be a certain amount of improvisation as I'm writing, which means any idea or any commitment to a project is risky. It involves time; it involves gathering of material, and sometimes it just doesn't work. Sometimes it does. As I'm starting out on a project, I can't tell if it will click or not. Joanna Scott

Work Time Commitment Writing Sometimes Will Gathering Project Out Tell Risky Idea Feel Involves Click Does Material Improvisation Any Just Which Certain Means Amount Starting

Telling ourselves that fiction is in a sense true and at the same time not true is essential to the art of fiction. It's been at the heart of fiction from the start. Fiction offers both truth, and we know it's a flat-out lie. Sometimes it drives a novelist mad. Sometimes it energizes us. Joanna Scott

Complex literary works demand an effort from the reader that is becoming harder to justify, given the sink-or-swim pressures to make profitable products for a global marketplace. Joanna Scott

Marketplace Complex Pressures Given Demand Global Make Reader Becoming Effort Literary Justify Products Works Harder Profitable

As entertainment, fiction may offer momentary relief from the stresses of reality. Joanna Scott

Entertainment Reality Relief Offer May Fiction Momentary Stresses

There are plenty of writers, past and present, from Shakespeare to Henry James to Lydia Davis, who test the limits of coherence and put pressure on current notions of accessible (and acceptable) narrative methods. To thrive and change and grow, any art needs this kind of pressure. Joanna Scott

Art Needs Change Pressure Thrive Past Plenty Kind Shakespeare Writers Davis Put Acceptable Narrative Accessible Limits Test Methods Current Any James Notions Who Grow Henry Henry James Present Coherence

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