“You can only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.”

—  Doris Lessing

Interview with Herbert Mitgang, "Mrs. Lessing Addresses Some of Life's Puzzles," The New York Times (22 April 1984)
Context: You can only learn to be a better writer by actually writing. I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.

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Doris Lessing94
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer … 1919–2013

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