Source: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Interview, The Paris Review (Summer 1956)
“I write the songs first and in most cases teach myself the technique second.”
As quoted in BAM Magazine (6 April 1990).
“God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures.”
Of Gardens
Essays (1625)
"How I Write", The Writer, September 1954
1950s
The First Revelation, Chapter 5
Context: In this Little Thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loveth it, the third, that God keepeth it. But what is to me verily the Maker, the Keeper, and the Lover, — I cannot tell; for till I am Substantially oned to Him, I may never have full rest nor very bliss: that is to say, till I be so fastened to Him, that there is right nought that is made betwixt my God and me.
Source: On Writing Well (Fifth Edition, orig. pub. 1976), Chapter 2, Simplicity, p. 12.
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.”
Source: A Moveable Feast (1964), Ch. 2
Context: I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know."
