“The spider gets his thread right out of his own guts, and that is where the author gets his writing.”

—  Robertson Davies

From a letter published in The Merry Heart : Reflections on Reading Writing, and the World of Books (1996).
Context: To ask an author who hopes to be a serious writer if his work is autobiographical is like asking a spider where he buys his thread. The spider gets his thread right out of his own guts, and that is where the author gets his writing.

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 "The spider gets his thread right out of his own guts, and that is where the author gets his writing." by Robertson Davies?
Robertson Davies photo
Robertson Davies282
Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and nov… 1913–1995

Related quotes

“David, the man after God’s own heart, got right to it and spilled out his guts about his experience: “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?””

John Townsend (1952) Canadian clinical psychologist and author

Where Is God (2009, Thomas Nelson publishers)

Leo Tolstoy photo

“When a person inflates his own importance, he does not see his own sins; and his sins get bigger right along with him.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: Path of Life (1909), p. 108

Cassandra Clare photo

“Where did you get that?" Jace looked down and saw that the spider demon's poison had eaten a hole in his shirt, leaving a good deal of his left shoulder bare.
"The shirt? At Macy's Winter sale.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“He said—let me get this right—he said that among the chief reasons we can’t cope with the consequence of our own ingenuity is that whenever a genuinely open-minded teacher tries to pass that attitude on to his pupils, the entrenched authorities grow frightened and shut his mouth.”

John Brunner book The Stone That Never Came Down

Source: The Stone That Never Came Down (1973), Chapter 10 (p. 77)

Norman Mailer photo

“Writing can wreck your body. You sit there on the chair hour after hour and sweat your guts out to get a few words.”

Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, actor and political candidate

Interview for French TV (1998)

Brandon Sanderson photo

“Authority doesn't come from a rank.," Kaladin said, fingering the spheres in his pocket.
"Where does it come from?"
"From the men who give it to you. That's the only way to get it.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

TotalBiscuit photo

“This monkey is running backwards and forwards! This tribesman right here—" [starts swinging his machete in an attempt to get the tribesman's attention] "Hi.”

TotalBiscuit (1984–2018) British game commentator

WTF Is…? series, Day One: Garry's Incident (October 1, 2013)

Ayn Rand photo

“The only proper, moral purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence—to protect his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to his own property and to the pursuit of his own happiness. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.”

Ayn Rand book The Virtue of Selfishness

The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

Related topics