What you create when you're teaching fiction writing is a kind of literary salon, not a social club or a mutual admiration society, not a debating society, not a repair shop, not a fight club or a soap box. It's a place to have a conversation about a story.
John DufresneWe read novels because we need stories; we crave them; we canโt live without telling them and hearing them. Stories are how we make sense of our lives and of the world. When weโre distressed and go to therapy, our therapistโs job is to help us tell our story. Life doesnโt come with plots; itโs messy and chaotic; life is one damn, inexplicable thing after another. And we canโt have that. We insist on meaning. And so we tell stories so that our lives make sense.
John DufresneI 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 DufresneReading is also a creative activity if you're doing it right. You can learn more from a story that's left the tracks than from a successful story.
John Dufresne