It's Why We Write

“We write, simply to tell the truth about things as we see them.”—John Steinbeck

Why do writers sit down with pen in hand, or at a typewriter or computer keyboard, and begin the creative process?  The reason, simply, is that  it’s  an immensely challenging – and yet at the same time immensely rewarding – process.

If you’re seeking inspiration, perhaps you’ll find it in the quotes by the one above or in the one by the equally accomplished writer below.   While they spoke their words two generations apart – John Steinbeck in the late 1930s; Anna Quindlen in the late 1990s –  they both seem to be expressing like responses to the question: “Why do writers write?”  

                                                              

                 Steinbeck’s was a simple, yet powerful single line.  Quindlen’s, while a bit more complex, still speaks volumes (literally and figuratively) in just a few words.

“Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbird or A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel.  Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had.”—Anna Quindlen

And so on this anniversary of the birth of one of our most famous Presidents, and as Sonny & Cher once so famously wrote and sang, “The beat goes on.”   Happy writing.

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