Recent content by Paul Whybrow

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated." Terry Tempest Williams

Characters more or less present themselves to me. I don't know their origins. I think if I did, if I seemed to myself to fabricate them, I could not induce suspension of disbelief in myself in the way writing fiction requires. Marilynne Robinson

If it doesn’t matter in five years, it doesn’t matter. Cher

"You can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, you have nothing." Arnold Schwarzenegger

“I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to...

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Samuel Ullman

"In the end you don't so much find yourself as you find someone who knows who you are." Robert Brault

"You don't write about people you know, you write what you know about people." Jan Mark

“I’ve spent 35 years trying to learn how to let go of the destructive parts of my character, and I still have days when I struggle with it. We all have our broken pieces. Emotionally, spiritually, in this life, nobody gets away unhurt. We’re always trying to find somebody whose broken pieces fit...

Over-thinking ruins you. It ruins the situation. And it twists things around. It makes you worry. Plus it just makes everything worse than it actually is. Karen Salmansohn

“The best thing about rock bottom is the rock part. You discover the solid bit of you. The bit that can't be broken down further. The thing that you might sentimentally call a soul. At our lowest we find the solid ground of our foundation. And we can build ourselves anew.” Matt Haig,

A line is a dot that went for a walk. Paul Klee

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant. Salvador Dali

If you expect nothing from somebody, you are never disappointed. Sylvia Plath

“Only when you do not know yourself, the opinion of other people becomes important.” Sadhguru