“I am writing for myself and strangers. This is the only way that I can do it. Everybody is a real one to me, everybody is like some one else too to me. No one of them that I know can want to know it and so I write for myself and strangers.”

The Making of Americans (1925)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I am writing for myself and strangers. This is the only way that I can do it. Everybody is a real one to me, everybody …" by Gertrude Stein?
Gertrude Stein photo
Gertrude Stein 160
American art collector and experimental writer of novels, p… 1874–1946

Related quotes

Ani DiFranco photo
John Steinbeck photo
Indra Nooyi photo

“I know writing is what I do but I still don't see myself as one.”

Dermot Healy (1947–2014) Irish writer

Small talk: Dermot Healy, 2011

Mark Twain photo

“He is a stranger to me, but he is a most remarkable man — and I am the other one. Between us, we cover all knowledge; he knows all that can be known, and I know the rest.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Statement (1906) in Mark Twain in Eruption: Hitherto Unpublished Pages About Men and Events (1940) edited by Bernard DeVoto

Niels Henrik Abel photo
Anne Morrow Lindbergh photo
Stephen Chbosky photo

“If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am. And I don't want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me, so I can feel it, too. I want them to be able to do whatever they want around me.”

Variant: I don't want to be somebody's crush. if somebody likes me, i want them to like the real me, not what they think i am. And i don't want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me, so i can feel it too. - Sam
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Writing is what I did when I was alone with no one watching me or telling me what to do. I could do whatever I wanted. So writing was really associated with body pleasure — it was the same thing. It was like the only thing I had.”

Kathy Acker (1947–1997) American novelist, playwright, essayist, and poet

Kathy Acker: Where does she get off?
Context: I think writing is basically about time and rhythm. Like with jazz. You have your basic melody and then you just riff off of it. And the riffs are about timing. And about sex.
Writing for me is about my freedom. When I was a kid, my parents were like monsters to me, and the world extended from them. They were horrible. And I was this good little girl — I didn't have the guts to oppose them. They told me what to do and how to be. So the only time I could have any freedom or joy was when I was alone in my room. Writing is what I did when I was alone with no one watching me or telling me what to do. I could do whatever I wanted. So writing was really associated with body pleasure — it was the same thing. It was like the only thing I had.

Related topics