Peter Elbow Quotes

The question for writing then is this: how long are you willing to be unheard?

Producing writing is not so much like filling a basin or pool once, but rather getting water to keep flowing through till finally it runs clear.

Certainty is rarely if ever possible and we increase the likelihood of getting things wrong if we succumb to the hunger for it.

Meaning is not what you start with, but what you end up with.

It's an unnecessary burden to try to think of words and also worry at the same time whether they're the right words.

Writing with voice is writing into which someone has breathed. It has that fluency, rhythm, and liveliness that exist naturally in the speech of most people when they are enjoying a conversation...Writing with real voice has the power to make you pay attention and understand --the words go deep.

Everyone agrees in theory that we can't judge a new idea or point of view unless we enter into it and try it out, but the practice itself is rare.

It is the moment when what was chaos is now seen as having a center of gravity. There is a shape where a moment ago there was none.