Revision is not the end of the creative process, but a new beginning. It's a chance not just to clean up and edit, but to open up and discover. The energetic prose comes about from all the energy that went into crafting it, I suppose.
John DufresneI write with a fountain pen. And then revise word by word and line by line so that the first draft of a scene is usually the tenth or so draft.
John DufresneWhat 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 DufresneThe landscape of childhood shapes us as it shapes the characters in our stories. You never forget the sacred places of your childhood.
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 Dufresne